By Sam Neff
The women’s track and field team splits up this weekend to participate in two tradition-rich meets.
The Cougars will take their distance relay teams to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for the 109th Annual Penn Relays April 27-28.
Several athletes participating in field events will go to Drake University in Des Moines for the Drake Relays April 28-29.
The Drake Relays is in its ninth decade and hopes to sell out the 18,000 seat Drake Stadium for the 35th consecutive time – the longest streak in U.S. track history.
At Drake, Anna-Lee Carter will compete in the high jump, Becky Beachler will throw the shotput and Becky Jackson will compete in the pole vault.
BYU takes a talented distance squad to Philadelphia. At the Penn Relays last year the Cougar finished second in the 4×800-meter relay and are expected to challenge defending champion Florida for first place.
The Cougars also finished second in the 4×1500-meter relay in 1999, but will be faced with a tough Villanova team anchored by NCAA champions Carmen Douma (1,500-meter, 1998) and Carrie Tollefson (3,000-meter, 1999).
In the distance medley, the Cougars bring a team that finished second at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this season, but will face returning champion Tulane.
Athletes of the week
BYU tracksters Kirsten Bolm and Kenneth Andam were named McLeodUSA Mountain West Conference Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Athletes of the Week.
Bolm, an Olympic hopeful in her native Germany, earned three first-place finishes at the Robison Invitational in Provo last weekend. Bolm beat former Cougar and 2000 Olympian Tiffany Lott in the 100-meter hurdles with a conference-best time of 13.08.
Bolm out-distanced all competitors by over two feet in the long jump and took first in the 100-meter dash.
Andam, an All-American junior from Ghana, earned three first-place finishes in his first full meet since recovering from a stress fracture in his leg.
Andam won the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.22 and the 200-meter dash with a time of 20.93. He also anchored the Cougars’ first-place 4×100-meter relay team.
