By Ben Wilkinson
The Cougar men”s track and field team had a disappointing weekend in Sacramento, Calif. at the national meet, with no top 10 team finish and only one All-American.
The Cougars came into the national meet with the hope of finishing in the top 10 for the first time since 1991 and with reason, having athletes ranked No.1 in the pole vault and 1,500-meter run.
In the pole vault, freshman Robbie Pratt entered the competition as the favorite after jumping a school record of 18 feet 2.75 inches. In the finals, Pratt failed to clear 17-04.5 on all three attempts, making way for BYU”s unlikely All-American.
Sophomore Trent Powell received an invitation to compete in the national meet and took advantage of it. Powell, who placed sixth in the West Regional Meet, placed second at nationals, had a personal best mark of 17-10.5 and earned All-American honors.
“Anytime you can PR, you”re feeling pretty good,” Powell said.
Even more, Powell suffered through four shoulder dislocations during the season and said he will undergo shoulder surgery Thursday.
After three days of competition the Cougars had eight points and were in a tie for 16th, but could do nothing more than watch themselves go further down the standings on the final day of competition because no other athlete was qualified in the remaining events.
The Cougars finished the meet in a tie for 27th with 8 points, 14 points behind tenth-place finisher University of South Carolina. The University of Arkansas won the event racking up 59 points, followed by second place Auburn with 50 points and the University of Southern California was third with 41.5 points.
Sophomore Kip Kangogo was expected to be in competition Saturday in the 1,500-meter run. Kangogo was ranked No. 1 in the 1,500 with a personal best time of 3 minutes 41.39 seconds, but did not even make it out of qualifying after running a time of 3:46.95 and finished 18th. Kangogo, who had a disappointing West Regional Meet where he did not qualify, received an invitation to run at the national meet, but did not take advantage of it. Sophomore teammate Nathan Robison finished 17th, .45 seconds ahead Kangogo.
In a weekend with very few bright spots, junior Chad Simkins came away with a personal best in the 800-meter run.
Last week Simkins said he knew he had the ability to run the 800 in 1:48, and he did. Simkins ran 1:48.74, exactly one second faster than his personal best time. Even with the personal best time, Simkins failed to qualify for the finals in the 800.
