By Sam Scorup
With several personal-best performances, the BYU track and field teams came away from Los Angeles and Texas with a number of regional-qualifying times during competitions on Friday and Saturday, April 7-8, 2006.
At the UCLA Invitational, Rena Chesser completed the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:21 to win the event. Amy Fowler, in her first steeplechase competition, took second place.
Chelsea McKell, Jenna Taylor Jensen and Sarah Hansen swept the top three spots in the 5,000 meters. McKell was No. 1 with a regional-qualifying time of 16:35.
Anne Heiner crossed the finish line in 9:43, outpacing all collegiate athletes in the 3,000 meters, while Laura Taylor earned second place in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:30. Michelle Lindsay ran a time of 4:29 in the 1,500-meter invitational race to place fourth among college runners in the event.
Mandy Lonsway pole-vaulted her way to third place with a personal-best height of 13 feet, 1.5 inches. Kelly Furr cleared 12 feet, 9.5 inches, and Makenzie Iorg?s mark of 12 feet, 5.5 inches, made her one of three Cougar women to achieve a regional-qualifying mark in the event last weekend.
Nicole Nevitt was third in the 400-meter hurdles invitational race. Her time was 1:02.76.
Coach Craig Poole praised the team for its achievements.
“We had quite a few qualifiers and we”re really proud of how the athletes performed,” Poole said.
For the men, Josh McAdams and Dustin Bybee were the top college athletes in the mile. Both needed just over 4:03 to complete the race en route to qualifying for regionals at the 1,500-meter distance.
Robbie Pratt was victorious in the pole vault at the Texas Relays, going 18 feet, 4.5 inches, while Matt Weirich was third in the collegiate division, clearing the bar at just over 17 feet. Whitney Neves won the event at UCLA, clearing a personal-record 17 feet, 1 and 1/2 inches.
Also in Los Angeles, Niklas Arrhenius threw the discus 200 feet to win the event, and then qualified for regionals in the shot put with a mark of 58 feet, 4 inches. Chris Reno added a second-place finish in the javelin by throwing 200 feet, 7 inches.
Matt Anderson competed outdoors for the first time this year, long jumping 22 feet, 11 inches, for third place. He placed among the top five in the triple jump with a mark of 46 feet, 2and 3/4 inches. David Pendergrass again broke the seven-foot barrier in the high jump, earning fifth place at just over 7 feet.
Jacob Gustafsson won the 800-meter university competition in a time of 1:51.00. Jason Dorais qualified for regionals in the 800 meters, clocking in at 1:50.21 in the invitational race.
Freshman Chris Carter brought home a pair of second-place finishes in the 200 and 400 meters. His times were 21.65 and 47.65 seconds, respectively.
While some of the athletes are still recuperating from injury, others have recently recovered.
?It was good to have a couple kids back that had been injured,? coach Mark Robison said.
