PROVO, Utah -- The Cougars wrapped up competition at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday afternoon, a meet highlighted by the late Friday night performances of Jared Ward and Tylor Thatcher in the men’s 10,000-meter run.

On Friday evening, Ward took third place in the 10,000-meter run, finishing in 28:36.15, the third-best mark in BYU history. Thatcher took 10th place with a time of 28:59.29, which moves him into eighth place all-time for the Cougars. Both times are likely to qualify the athletes for a spot at the NCAA Regional meet later this year.

“Ward and Thatcher ran extremely well for us last night,” distance coach Ed Eyestone said. “It’s really nice for distance guys to get these regional qualifying times out of the way early in the season. They both ran their fastest times ever, so it’s good to see that type of improvement.”

David Graham ran the 800-meters on Saturday in 1:51.50, good for seventh place.

Texas Relays

BYU also competed in the Texas Relays on Saturday, running in both the 4x200-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay.

In the 4x200, BYU’s team of Korey Smith, Mario Harper, Rhyan Atrice and Cade Lindahl took third with a time of 1:24.93. The same team took eighth overall in the 4x400, finishing in 3:13.17.

The Cougars head to Tempe, Ariz., next week to compete in the Sun Angel Classic.

DAY 1 RECAP

PROVO, Utah -- The men’s track team will split up this weekend to compete in three meets -- the Texas Relays, the Stanford Invitational and the UVU Hal Wing Collegiate Invitational.

The Texas Relays will take place at Mike A. Myers Track Stadium in Austin, Texas on Friday and Saturday. The Cougars will compete against No. 4 Texas, No. 6 Oregon and No. 12 UCLA among others.

“It’ll be a good weekend for us in terms of seeing improvement,” head coach Mark Robison said. “We need to get more repetition and we’ll get a lot of our athletes competing this week across the three meets. At Stanford and Texas we’ll have some phenomenal competition.”

The Stanford Invitational will be held at Cobb Track and Angell Field in Stanford, Calif. on Friday and Saturday. The Cougars will send most of their distance runners to Stanford to compete against athletes from No. 2 Arkansas, No. 6 Oregon and No. 20 Arizona. The UVU Hal Wing Collegiate Invitational will take place on Friday at Hal Wing Track and Field.

BYU hopes to continue to see improvement as the young outdoor season progresses.

“We’ve been fortunate to have great weather here so we’ve been able to have good practices outdoors,” Robison said. “It makes a big difference to get that repetition outdoors instead of at our indoor facility.”

Action starts in Texas at 10 a.m. CDT on Friday morning. The Stanford Invitational will begin at 11 a.m. PDT and the UVU Invitational will start at 8:30 a.m. MDT.