By DAVE HERSAM
The BYU men’s track team looks to follow up their first-week win with a strong performance at Montana State Friday night, as they try to earn their 10th straight WAC indoor title.
The team will run against host Montana State, Montana, and Idaho State in Bozeman, Mont., and six team members will also travel to Ogden for a meet at Weber State.
The Cougars won an indoor meet Jan. 16 at Idaho State beating ISU 77-66 and Utah State 90-50. Individual winners included Clayton Patch in the 400-meters, Fikre Wondafrash in the 1600-meters, Eric Crow in the high jump, Marek Samseli in the triple jump and Daniel Arrhenius with the shot put.
At Utah State on Jan. 17, though team scores were not kept, Cougars who won their events were Kenneth Andam in the 55-meters, Clayton Patch in the 200-meters, and Steve James in the 400-meters.
Head coach Willard Hirschi said that the team has a lot of potential, but has a lot of work to do to live up to that potential.
“We’re a very young team this year,” Hirschi said, “and young with a lot of returned missionaries who have to get back in shape.”
The team is also slightly weakened by injuries, which Hirschi said is normal for any track squad. Sprinters are especially likely to get hurt because of the quick and intense nature of their events.
One of BYU’s top sprinters, Kenneth Andam, was injured Wednesday in practice and will not compete with the team tonight.
Andam, a freshman from Takoradi, Ghana majoring in computer science, said that he was feeling great and running well when he strained a groin muscle starting a practice race.
“I think that I could have gotten an (NCAA) qualifying time at this meet,” Andam said. “But the muscle’s only strained. I hope to be running again in four or five days, be back to 100 percent, and look to qualify again.”
Kenneth followed his older brother Felix, now a senior, here to BYU, but the Andam tandem has not run together at the same meet this season. When Kenneth ran two weeks ago, Felix, a senior, was sick with the flu, and now Kenneth is out with his groin strain. Hirschi said that he expects Kenneth to develop into “a great one.”
Speaking of young, Mao Tjiroze just arrived from Windhoek, Namibia Jan. 15. He will run in the 400 and 800-meters tonight.
“I’m just trying to get into shape and see where I am right now,” he said. “Provo’s at a high altitude, but isn’t as cold as I thought it would be.”
