BYU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
The BYU men’s and women’s track and field teams are sending 53 athletes ? 26 men and 27 women — to Eugene, Ore., for the West Regional Track meet.
“This is the most we have ever had,” BYU women’s track coach Craig Poole said. “Before this season, the most we have had is about 16. This is a good team. We have quality athletes and they have bought into the program and the vision we have established here.”
The women’s team has 11 athletes ranked in the top 10 in their events. Jennifer Grossarth is fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with teammate Sandra Mazan in ninth. Michelle Turner is fourth in the 800 meters and Heidi Magill is ninth in the 1,500 meters. Amy Fowler is second in the west West region and is poised to make another trip to the national meet in Sacramento, Calif. Whitney McDonald, who owns the fastest 5,000 meter time in BYU women’s history, is ranked second in the west in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. McDonald has auto-matically qualified for nationals in the 10,000 meters and is second all-time at BYU. Mindy Neeley, who received an All-America citation earlier this year at the Indoor National Champi-onships in the long jump, is ranked second in the event in the west region. Kamila Rywelska is currently ranked fifth in the west in the triple jump, and holds the longest mark on the BYU all-time list. Ashley McAllister and Kelly Furr both hit career best marks in the pole vault at the MWC Outdoor Championships this year.
The men’s team has a large team competing in Oregon, with many athletes that could advance to the NCAA Championships.
“At regionals, we have one main objective: to get as many athletes as possible to advance to nationals,” BYU men’s track coach Mark Robi-son said. “We just look at the rank orders and enter the athletes into the events they will do the best in and have the best chance of advancing. We may not score a lot of points, but we really just want our athletes to ad-vance.”
The men’s team has nine athletes in the top 10 in the region. Only Nate Rencher will compete in two events, the 110-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles. Chris Carter is ranked fifth in the 400-meter hurdles. Chandler Goodwin is ranked fifth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the West region. Josh Rohatin-sky will compete in the 1,500 meters at region, but will run in the 10,000 meters at Nationals, which he has already qualified for. Rohatinsky is ranked in the top five in the region in three events (the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters). David Pendergrass is ranked fourth in the high jump, while Bryce Bergen is ranked ninth, in the region. Bob Low and Victor Weirich are ranked sixth and eighth, respectively, in the pole vault. Niklas Arrhenius is ranked third in the region in the discus. Arrhenius threw a career- best 215 feet, 9 inches last week. Although, his throw came after the deadline and doesn’t count toward NCAA national seeding, it is an A standard for the Olympics and the best throw among NCAA competitors this season.
