Men’s track sends nine to nationals

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    By Ben Wilkinson

    PALO ALTO, Calif. – The BYU men”s track and field team had six athletes and one relay team qualify for the national championship meet at the NCAA West Regional Meet.

    The top-five finishers in each individual event and the top-three relays from the regional meet earn automatic entries to the NCAA meet.

    After the first day of competition, the Cougars had only Aron Szmuda qualified for nationals in the long jump.

    The 2003 Mountain West Conference champion in the long jump, Szmuda had a mark of 24-4 1/4 to place fifth in the region and earn the west region”s final automatic spot. Szmuda just missed a chance at qualifying in two events by placing sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 51-4 1/4.

    Friday, May 30, also saw the Cougars get its only at-large bid when sophomore Kip Kangogo failed to qualify for the finals in the 1,500-meter run. Kangogo, the pre-race favorite, finished 14th overall, but having posted the top mark in the nation earlier this season, Kangogo waits to see if he will receive an at-large invitation to the National Championships.

    Saturday was better for the Cougars who had five athletes and one relay team qualify for nationals.

    The 4X100 meter relay team of sophomore Cody Fonnesbeck, freshman Nathan Soelberg, senior Matt Nielsen and freshman Paul Smith finished second with a time of 40.26 seconds, but almost missed a chance at qualifying.

    After a second-place performance in the first heat of preliminaries, it was announced that BYU had been disqualified because of an improper exchange. After an appeal to the meet managers, the ruling was overturned, and the foursome was reinstated.

    In field events, freshman Robbie Pratt won the pole vault with a jump of 18-2 3/4, breaking the school record by 1/4 inch. Pratt was the only BYU athlete to place first during the meet.

    Sophomore Nathan Robison qualified for nationals with a third place finish in the 1,500 meters. Robison, son of head coach Mark Robison, finished with a time of 3:46.41.

    BYU had two other athletes finish third. Junior Chad Simkins in the 800-meters and junior Matt Adams in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Simkins ran the 800 in a time of 1:50.52, while Adams had a personal best time of 8:47.75.

    Neilson became the only Cougar to qualify in two events after placing fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.65 beating out teammate Smith by .02 seconds.

    As a team, the Cougars finished fifth with a score of 67 points. UCLA won the meet with 101 points and Southern California (92), Oregon (71) and Stanford (69) rounded out the top five.

    Athletes will train this week and head to Sacramento, Calif. for the national meet June 11-14.

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