BYU track and field student assistant Jared Ward crosses the finish line of the USATF Marathon Championships. Ward came in first place. (Twitter)
LOS ANGELES — Former BYU athlete and current BYU track and field student assistant Jared Ward took first place in the United States Track and Field (USATF) Marathon Championships over the weekend.
The Kaysville, Utah, native finished with a time of 2:12:56 in the race, a personal best in the marathon by over a minute. He started to pull away from a trio of runners at the 15-mile mark and ended up winning by more than three minutes.
Ward, who was recently announced as the winner of BYU track and field's Athlete of the Year Award for 2014, began participating with the USATF Running Circuit last year. In October, just four months after suffering a stress fracture, Ward took second place at the circuit's marathon in Minneapolis.
Ward is completing the five-year statistics program at BYU and has worked as a student assistant for the cross country and track teams since his eligibility ended last summer.