SEATTLE – The BYU track and field team concluded a successful weekend of competition as the men’s team took first overall and several athletes moved up the BYU all-time record boards at the 2019 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships on Saturday.

“This was a huge win for us,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “The coaches all recognized that we have a really deep men’s team and made a goal to win the MPSF Championships. This has been a great meet for the team to rally together. Across the board from every event we had athletes contributing which is excellent because we want to be a well-rounded program so we can be competitive with the best in the country.”

BYU men’s team was named MPSF Champions after finishing first out of 14 teams with a team score of 93 points, rising above Pac-12 schools including UCLA, Oregon and USC. The women’s team tied for seventh out of 19 teams with a team score of 46 points. 

The Cougars had a strong start to the MPSF Championships on Saturday with multiple athletes earning career-best marks to contribute to the final team scores.

Erica Birk-Jarvis ran a 4:34.59 in the women’s mile to break BYU’s all-time mark and take first place. This is Birk-Jarvis’ second No. 1 BYU record after clocking 9:00.69 in the women’s 3000m at the Iowa State Classic earlier this season. Anna Camp finished seventh in the women’s mile with a time of 4:43.38 and Kate Hunter took 13th (4:48.96).

On the men’s side in the mile, Clayton Young clocked 4:00.77 mile for a fourth-place finish and the No. 7 BYU all-time mark. Teammate Marcus Dickson followed in fifth place to record the eighth-fastest time in school history (4:01.02). Connor McMillan finished eighth with a time of 4:04.00.

Michael Bluth won the men’s 400m with a career-best 46.58 to move up two spots to No. 2 all-time. All-American Brenna Porter finished fifth in the women’s 400m dash (54.37). Cassidy Pinnock clocked 55.21 for a ninth-place finish in the 400m and the No. 8 spot on the BYU record board. Brinn Jensen ran the 10th-fastest time in program history (55.87) to take 11th place in the women’s 400m.

Lauren Ellsworth-Barnes and Anna Camp had a strong showing in the women’s 800m. Ellsworth-Barnes ran a career-best 2:06.48 for a first-place finish and No. 8 BYU all-time mark. Anna Camp took seventh place and tied for the 10th-fastest time in program history with her personal-best 2:07.32. In the men’s 800m, Patrick Parker finished third and clocked the eighth-fastest time in BYU history (1:49.32).

Conner Mantz ran a career-best 7:50.90 in the men’s 3000m to earn second place and the No. 5 spot on the BYU record board. Eyestone hopes that his time is enough to qualify in the event for Nationals.  

Brian Matthews finished second in the men’s heptathlon with 5287 points and freshman Ben Barton followed in fifth place with 4996 points. Matthews earned multiple season-best marks on Friday including 6.61m/21-8.25 in the long jump and 12.86m/42-2.25 in the shot put.

After being ranked eighth going into finals, Rickey Fantroy took fourth in the triple jump with a career-best mark of 15.30m/50-2.50. All-American Andrea-Stapleton Johnson took third in the women’s high jump after clearing 1.79m/5-10.50.

The Cougars will now wait to confirm qualifiers and continue preparation for the NCAA Indoor Championships. The NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships begin Friday, Mar. 8, at CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama.

Notables: 

• Day One Recap
• MPSF Indoor Track and Field Championships Final Results

PROVO, Utah – BYU track and field will begin the championship portion of the indoor season at the 2019 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships Feb. 22-23.

“One of our goals at the start of the season was to do very well at the conference meet,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “I think on the men’s side that means winning the MPSF championships and on the women’s side I think we’re capable of finishing top five.”

The 17th-ranked BYU men’s team will face off against 14 teams at the University of Washington's Dempsey Indoor Track Arena, including No. 10 Oregon, No. 12 USC, No. 15 Stanford and No. 23 Arizona. The 16th-ranked BYU women’s team will compete against 21 other teams at the conference championship meet, headlined by No. 2 USC, No 3. Oregon and No. 25 UCLA.

“I think we’re going to give a good showing,” Eyestone continued. “We have some athletes who we know are going to the national meet that are dropping down in events this weekend so we might be giving up a few points there. However, I think we have enough strength overall to give a really good run at it.”

To help put the team on track at the conference championship meet, the BYU coaches will be putting together a goal for the number of total season-best marks earned by the team at the meet. Eyestone believes that the overall scoring will take care of itself if the athletes are going for their best performances of the season.

Eyestone noted that the men’s distance medley relay (DMR) team will be competing again to take another shot at qualifying for the 2019 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The BYU DMR team is currently sitting with the 13th-best time in the nation while only the top 12 times advance to Nationals. The team will consist of the same runners as the previous meet with Michael Bluth, Talem Franco, Matt Owens and Patrick Parker.

“Our guys each need to improve 0.25 seconds on their legs,” Eyestone said. “We want to get into the 8-10 range because there are about five marks above that, that are converted because of the tracks they ran on. If we get to the NCAA Championships, I think we could score pretty well.”

The Cougars will have a handful of athletes looking to perform well enough to put themselves in position to qualify for Nationals. Eyestone specifically highlighted Anna Camp in the women’s mile and Lauren Ellsworth in the women’s 800m as two athletes he expects to perform well enough to potentially earn qualifying positions.

Follow @BYUTFXC on Twitter and @BYUtrackfieldxc on Instagram for team updates from the meet. The MPSF Championships will be streamed live on FloTrack.org and live results can be found on Athletic.net.