By RACHEL ANDERSON
BYU’s women’s track team tied for first place with Utah State Tuesday night at the Utah Collegiate Track championship. Both finished with 54 points.
Weber State was close behind with 42 points and the University of Utah finished with 24 points. Not only did the women place first in eight events, but the long jump, high jump and the mile relay were the best results of the year.
Kristel Berendsen won first place in the long jump, Jenna McDowell in the high jump, Tiffany Lott in the 100-meter hurdles and Windy Jorgensen swept through the 200- and 100-meters.
Other winners included Elizabeth Jackson in the 3000-meter, Dixie Williams in the 400-meter hurdles, and BYU’s 4×100 relay team. Even with the good finishes, head coach Craig Poole was not entirely pleased.
“The (athletes) weren’t fired up compared to the competition at UCLA the previous weekend,” Poole said.
At the weekend meet, the women’s team placed second to USC in the duals and second to UCLA in the tri’s.
BYU is No. 3 in the nation and has a competitor ranked in the top 15 in the nation in every event.
Marsha Mark who placed first in the long jump at UCLA is ranked ninth in the nation, Becky Jackson is ranked third in the pole-vault and Kristel Berendsen is ranked ninth in the high jump.
Tiffany Lott, seventh in the nation in the javelin, said as a senior she has seen that “the schools have been getting a lot stronger in the last 5 years.”
Poole also said he was not happy with the way the meet was run, in that the man power and funds were not sufficient.
“Scores were not reported, awards were not given out, the announcements were not efficient, and the enthusiasm and luster which comes from music throughout the meet was not there,” he said.
Lott was also frustrated at the way the meet was run. The 100-meter hurdles had to restart eight or nine times before they were allowed to run their race.
“It mentally messes you up when you have to start over so many times,” Lott said.
Despite these concerns, the audience cheered with excitement to see so many of the BYU runners reach such high rankings. BYU’s women’s team will be competing again this Saturday at Utah State.
