By MELANIE BRIDGE
melanie@du2.byu.edu
The men's and women's track teams made their presence known in a big way at the UC-Irvine Spring Break Invitational on Saturday.
The women's team won with 204 points. Air Force was second with 140.5 points. Also competing were Minnesota, UC-Irvine and Cal State-Fullerton. The men pulled off their second win of the season with 227.5 points. Again Air Force placed second with 170.5 points.
After last week's fourth place finish, the women's team was determined to make a better showing, and they did, winning 10 individual events. In the running events, Angie Poulson won the 400 meters, Treva Bryant took the 800 meters and Sarah Ellis won the 3,000 meters. In the 100-meter high hurdles, BYU ran away with the race, taking the first five places. Shauna Rohbock, in her track debut this year, was the winner. Dixie Williams won the 400-meter hurdles.
The Cougar relay teams also preformed well in Irvine. The 4x100 team of Marsha Mark, Williams, Milena Alver and Ashley Westphal came in .5 seconds ahead of Minnesota. In the 4x400-meter relay, the BYU 'B' team of Jill Rudman, Williams, Kristin Barnes and Alver beat the BYU 'A' team. In the field events, Jeanna McDowell won the high jump, Amy Palmer won the shot put and Maridyn Smith came in first in the hammer throw.
'Having all of the coaching staff there and a few more (runners) helps us all pull together better,' said pole vaulter Becky Jackson.
The BYU men's team also won an impressive 15 individual events. Leonard Myles-Mills won both the 100 and 200 meters, provisionally qualifying for nationals in the 100. Clayton Patch took the 400 meters, Mao Tjiroze won the 800 meters, Steve Barrus was first in the 1500 meters and Jeff Wilson won the steeplechase.
Sweeping the hurdles races seemed to be a trend as the men won the first four places in the 400-meter hurdles, with Kyle Grossarth leading the pack. Kirk Sweetnam also won the 110-meter high hurdles. The men's 4x100-meter relay team of Eric Sorenson, Myles-Mills, Kenneth Andam and Othello Richards took first place, and the 4x400 relay team completed the relay sweep.
In the field, Marc Chenn won the high jump, and Neil Jensen took the pole vault. Andam placed first in the long jump, Doug Bryant won the hammer throw and Lynn Jackson took the javelin.
'The longer the season goes, the better we'll do,' said men's coach Willard Hirschi.
'We really look good, and hopefully we can stay healthy and look much better,' Myles-Mills said.
The women's team sent their distance runners to Stanford on Saturday, and had some early good performances, said assistant coach Patrick Shane. Courtney Pugmire Meldrom's time of 16:14.43 automatically qualified her for the national championships in the 5,000 meters.