EUGENE, Ore. — Kenneth Rooks and Colten Yardley qualified for the finals in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 400m-meters hurdles, respectively, as No. 4/14 BYU track and field opened competition at the 2022 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field on Wednesday.

“Certainly, Kenneth and Colten advancing was the highlight of the evening,” said BYU director of track and field Ed Eyestone. “They both ran very strong races, and I’m excited to watch them and follow them in Friday’s finals.”

Rooks advanced to Friday’s steeplechase final as he won his heat and finished second overall with a personal-best 8:24.88. With Wednesday’s time, Rooks now stands at No. 2 all-time among BYU men’s steeplechasers, surpassing 2009 national champion Kyle Perry’s 8:29.24.

“Kenneth definitely advanced with style,” Eyestone said. “Each race has crucial moments in it and I felt like when that crucial moment occurred, Kenneth knew to move himself up into top-five position, and then he just crushed the last 400.”

Rooks will compete for BYU’s fourth all-time men’s steeplechase national title on Friday at 6:24 p.m. PDT on ESPN2.

Senior Garrett Marsing joined Rooks in the steeplechase and finished 19th at 8:45.71.

After anchoring the men’s 4x100-meter relay earlier in the afternoon, Yardley ran 49.82 in the men’s 400m hurdle semifinal, finishing second in his heat and eighth overall as he punched his ticket to Friday’s final. Yardley pulled away late from Rivaldo Leacock of New Mexico and Georgia’s Caleb Cavanaugh to achieve the automatic qualifier to the final with a top-2 spot in the heat.

“Colten had a great mentality and executed his race well to put himself in the final,” said BYU men’s sprints and hurdles coach Kyle Grossarth. “I’m excited to see what he can do on Friday.”

Yardley will compete for a 400m hurdles final on Friday at 7:27 p.m. PDT on ESPN2.

Zach McWhorter concluded the season with a First Team All-American performance in the men’s pole vault final on Wednesday. McWhorter’s clearance of 5.60m/18-4.5 was good for a sixth-place finish. Caleb Witsken took home Second Team All-American honors as he finished 10th with a final height of 5.45m/17-10.5.

Sebastian Fernandez’s season wound to a close with an 11th-place finish in the men’s 800m semifinal. At 1:47.66, Fernandez was two spots out of finals qualifying. Navasky Anderson of Mississippi State won the semifinal at 1:45.94.

Brandon Garnica and Casey Clinger took 11th and 12th, respectively, in the 10,000m final. Both finished as Second Team All-Americans with Garnica running a 28:21.81 and Clinger a 28:22.99. Notre Dame’s Dylan Jacobs was crowned national champion with a winning time of 28:12.32. Clinger will return for the 5,000-meter final on Friday at 7:55 p.m. PDT on ESPN2.

Michael Whittaker, the lone BYU men’s thrower to reach nationals, took 20th in the javelin final at 65.96m/216-5.

Jared Davis, Dallin Draper, Landon Maxfield and Colten Yardley combined to clock a 4x100m relay time of 40.10, finishing 24th and falling short of qualifying for the final. Houston won the semifinal at 38.66.

Through five events, decathlete Dallin Vorkink stands in 13th with 3,733 points. Vorkink began the day running a season-best 100m time of 11.38.

Thursday’s events will begin with Vorkink in the 110-meter hurdles at 11:30 a.m. PDT on ESPN3. Courtney Wayment and Lexy Halladay kickoff women’s events in the steeplechase semifinal on Thursday at 6:02 p.m. PDT on ESPNU.

*If qualified

PROVO, Utah — No. 4/14 BYU men's and women’s track and field will send a total of 22 athletes to the 2022 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon next week.

The Cougars will compete athletes in 12 different events, starting Wednesday, June 8 at 12:30 p.m. PDT. With the exception of the heptathlon and decathlon, men’s events run Wednesday and Friday, June 8 and 10, while the BYU women compete in their events on Thursday and Saturday, June 9 and 11.

Meet Information

• June 8-11
• Hayward Field // Eugene, Oregon
• Complete Meet Schedule
• Start Lists: Men // Women
• Live Results
• Watch/Stream on ESPN Networks (Broadcast schedule below)
• Recaps: Day 1 // Day 2 // Day 3 // Day 4

The 12 entries from the BYU men are tied for second-most nationally, while the nine qualified BYU women are tied for seventh-most nationally. As a team, the Cougars tallied 21 entries, which is tied for eighth in the nation and fifth-most in school history. 

Men's Preview
No. 4 BYU men’s track and field is tied for second nationally with 12 entries advancing to compete at Hayward Field. Zach McWhorter, Caleb Witsken, Kenneth Rooks and Casey Clinger each enter the title meet ranked top-10 nationally in their respective events.

McWhorter, the nation’s second-ranked men’s pole vaulter, makes his second-straight outdoor nationals’ appearance after finishing ninth there a season ago. Witsken stands sixth nationally with a season-best clearance of 5.56m/18-2.75. Both BYU pole vaulters will seek to become the first Cougar to win an outdoor national championship in the event since Robison Pratt in 2005.

Rooks is ranked No. 4 nationally among men’s steeplechasers at 8:31.19 and is poised for his second-career outdoor nationals’ venture. The freshman from Walla Walla, Washington finished 11th at the 2019 National Championships prior to serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Rooks will be joined in the steeplechase by teammate Garrett Marsing.

The BYU men’s distance group will be represented by Casey Clinger and Brandon Garnica in Eugene. Both athletes qualified to compete in the 10,000m, while Clinger will also run the 5000-meters. Clinger is ranked No. 8 nationally with a program, personal and season-best 5000m time of 13:23.33. Men’s distance coach Ed Eyestone competed in and won both 5000 and 10,000m national titles in 1985.

Decathlete Dallin Vorkink returns to nationals looking to improve on his 17th-place finish in 2021. Vorkink ranks No. 11 nationally in the decathlon with a personal-best total of 7,894 points.

Senior sprints and hurdles master Colten Yardley makes his third-career outdoor nationals’ appearance for the Cougars. Yardley will anchor the men’s 4x100-meter squad and be preceded in the race by Easton Bianchi, Jared Davis and Dallin Draper.

Sebastian Fernandez’s journey from walk-on to national title competitor continues at Hayward Field as the freshman from Andover, Minnesota competes in the 800m. Fernandez becomes the first BYU men’s athlete to do so since Shaquille Walker in 2016.

Michael Whittaker will take to the field to compete for the javelin national title as the Cougars’ lone men’s thrower in Eugene. Whittaker set a season and personal-best throw of 68.74/225-6 in his last time at Hayward Field at the Oregon Twilight on May 6.

After finishing 17th as a team in 2021, BYU will compete for its 37th all-time top-20 finish in hopes of its first top-10 finish since taking eighth in 2019.

Women's Preview
Finishing 10th last season, the Cougars look to earn back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Outdoor Championships. The BYU women head into Eugene led by Courtney Wayment and Ashton Riner, who both hold the best time or mark in the nation for the respective events, and took first in their event at the NCAA West Preliminary in Fayetteville, Arkansas a week ago. 

Wayment ran away in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing with a time of 9:42.32, five seconds faster than the next finisher. Lexy Halladay also qualified in the steeplechase, finished 10th with a time of 10:06.15, good for an automatic qualifying spot with a third-place finish in her heat.

Riner threw a 57.25m/187-10 in the javelin, a mark nearly eight feet further than the second-place finisher. Teammate Alex McAllister's mark of 52.26m/171-5 qualified her as well, placing her seventh overall at the Preliminary.

Aubrey Frentheway's late push in the 10,000-meters earned her a qualifying spot at 11th-place with a time of 33:55.84, the third women's distance athlete to earn a trip to Eugene. Sable Lohmeier El-Bakri's personal best and school-record setting mark of 56.13m/184-2 in the discus put her in seventh and qualified her for Nationals as well.

Cierra Tidwell-Allphin finished in a six-way tie for first in the high jump, clearing three heights on her first try and finishing with a height of 1.81m/5-11.25. Claire Seymour clocked a 2:03.01 in the 800-meters, placing eighth overall but second in her heat to auto qualify and punch her ticket to Hayward. 

Halley Folsom Walker qualified for Nationals in the heptathlon coming out of the regular season, posting a personal-best and No. 4 all-time score of 5,699 at the Bryan Clay Invitational back in April that puts her at No. 14 nationally this season. Folsom Walker competed at the West Preliminary in the 400m hurdles last weekend as well. 

BYU Schedule
Schedule is subject to change and will be updated following each day of competition. Track events will be televised and streamed on ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN, while field events will be streamed on ESPN3. All times listed are PDT.