Albuquerque, N.M.-- Braydon Bringhurst led the men and Deezbaa Whaley led the women to successful showings at the BYU track and field meet at the Lobo Invitational on Saturday.
Bringhurst took first place in the men's pole vault, with a mark of 5.50m, good enough for fourth all-time at BYU. That mark alone should qualify him for the national meet. Teammate Kyle Brown joined him with a third place finish (5.05m), as the Cougars occupied two of the top three spots in that event.
BYU head coach Ed Eyestone was pleased with his team's performance.
“For the first road trip of the year we came together and performed well,” Eyestone said. “We saw personal bests everywhere. I was particularly impressed with our vaulters. Our team realizes the training they are doing is yielding dividends and we are looking forward to future meets to keep improving.”
On the women's side, Whaley turned in her personal best with a mark of 18.62m in the weight throw, a mark good enough for third place on the BYU indoor top ten all-time leader board.
“The weight throw was our best event today,” BYU throws coach NIklad Arrhenius said. “This is a personal record for Whaley and we know that she can throw even farther.”
Five other cougars turned in first place finishes on Saturday on the women's side. In the 600m race, Alyssa Hansen won with a time of 1:34:23 and Angela Shields took first in the 400m, with a time of 57:29.
BYU freshman Shea Martinez ran the 800m with a time of 2:09.29, winning her first ever race as a Cougar. Lauren Baxter took second place in the 200m with a time of 24.61.
Senior Rachel Fisher took first place in the women's pole vault as well. The texas native had a mark of 4.00m, continuing her successful career as a BYU cougar.
Eyestone remained satisfied with the results, saying it was a good test on the road,
“It was a nice outing overall for us,' he said. 'A good first weekend on the road.”
The women will be in Seattle next, as they travel to the Washington Invitation on Jan. 24th, while the men's next competition will be Jan. 24 and 25 in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the Air Force Invitational.
Full results for the BYU tack and field meet at the Lobo Invitational can be found at LiveRunningResults.com.
