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Braden Taylor | Posted: 28 Apr 2018 | Updated: 8 Nov 2020
Braden Taylor

Cougars earn all-time marks, Olympian breaks record at Robison Invitational

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PROVO, Utah – Olympian Jeff Henderson broke the Clarence F. Robison Complex record in the long jump while Alyssa Dalton and Scott Mecham highlighted a group of BYU athletes that earned spots on BYU’s all-time record list at the Robison Invitational on Saturday.

“We had some people hit regional marks and had others improve regional marks,” said head coach Ed Eyestone. “It just shows that our athletes perform well at the Robison Invitational when they’re at home in front of friends and family.”

Eyestone was particularly excited that Mecham ran like a “madman” on his way to a first-place finish in the 400m hurdles with a time of 50.15. Mecham’s mark gives him the No. 5 time in both BYU history and current national NCAA rankings.

Dalton improved her career-best in the 100m hurdles after clocking a 13.20 to rank No. 4 all-time at BYU. Nicole Lord joined Dalton on BYU’s top-10 list at No. 9 for the 100m hurdles finishing with a personal-best time of 13.64.

The Cougars had their stadium record broken in the long jump by 2016 Olympic gold medalist, Henderson. On his last attempt, Henderson jumped 8.44m to break the record of 8.40m previously set during the 1989 NCAA Championships hosted at Clarence F. Robison Complex. His mark ranks No. 1 in the world this year in the long jump.

“People didn’t know that I was coming or that I was jumping, so it made it more exciting,” Henderson said. “This is my first time ever to compete here and I liked it. Smaller meets are good cause I work on the small things.”

Freshman phenom Ashton Riner continued her first-year dominance by moving up on the school’s all-time list for the third time this season. Riner’s first throw of the day sailed 52.37m and was enough to boost her to No. 2 all-time.

Seth Knowlton put himself in position to qualify for regionals with a career-best 54.56m in the discus. Teammate Kevin Nielsen competed in the decathlon and earned a personal-best 7475 points to put himself in contention to compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Ellie Heiden-Quackenbush ran her way onto two BYU top-10 lists on Saturday. She first clocked a 54.49 in the 400m for No. 7 all-time and then followed that performance running a 23.91 in the 200m for No. 10 all-time. Fellow sprinter Keesha Miller also broke into the school’s top times with the ninth fastest time of 11.71 in the 100m.

Andrea Stapleton-Johnson broke her previous record in the high jump with a clearance of 1.85m and is now tied for fourth all-time at BYU. Tomi Adegoke gave himself a chance to qualify for regionals in the long jump with a career mark of 7.44m and Jake Jarvis is on the bubble to qualify in the pole vault with a personal-best of 5.15m.

The men’s relay teams clocked season-bests today with the 4x100 team running 40.17, a mark that usually qualifies for regionals, and the 4x400 team finishing the meet with a 3:10.56.

The Cougars will travel for the last time this outdoor regular season to compete at the Sacramento State Open on Saturday, May 5. BYU track and field will then return home the following week for the Last Chance Meet leading up to the NCAA West Preliminary.

For the official results of the Robison Invitational, click here.

 

 
Jenessa Mann | Posted: 24 Apr 2018 | Updated: 8 Nov 2020
Jenessa Mann

Track and field to compete in first home meet of the season

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PROVO, Utah – BYU track and field will compete in its first home meet of the season, the BYU Robison Invitational, at the Clarence Robinson Track April 26-28.

“The Robinson Invitational is the home meet that we look forward to the most,” head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We’re looking for some really nice performances from all of our groups.”

The No. 8 men’s team and the women’s team will focus on gaining more regional qualifying times. The men’s team moved up from No. 25 to No. 8 this week due to the amount of regional qualifying times student-athletes secured thus far.

Eyestone said there are many athletes that fans should come to see.

The pole vault group, led by Sierra Hansen, is one group that Eyestone expects to perform well in front of the home crowd.

The women’s sprint group will compete and Eyestone said to particularly watch the women’s 4x400m relay team. The group, Alyssa Dalton, Cassidy Pinnock, Lauren Rawlinson and Ellie Heiden-Quackenbush, earned a potential regional qualifying time last weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays with a season-best 3:38.34.

Andrea Stapleton-Johnson will compete in the high jump. She finished 16th in the NCAA Championships last year.

Although most of the middle-distance and distance runners will be recovering from last week’s meet and will not be competing, the mile race will be a major event to watch.

Jefferson Jarvis, a shot putter, had what Eyestone termed a “breakthrough meet” last week and Eyestone expects a great performance from him this week.

Derek Sorensen will run the 100m race. The sophomore has been having a successful season thus far.

The seniors will be honored around 12:45 p.m. MT on Saturday.

“I hope people come out, enjoy the weather and support the track team,” Eyestone said.

The track meet will be streamed on the BYU Track and Field/XC Facebook page. A schedule of the meet can be found here.

Live stats can be found here.