PROVO, Utah — No. 21 BYU women’s track and field athletes recorded improved times and marks at meets on the road and at home on Friday.

Ken Shannon Last Chance Invitational | Dempsey Indoor | Seattle, Washington

Sadie Sargent, Lexy Halladay-Lowry and Aubrey Frentheway each clocked personal bests Heat 3 of the women’s 3,000-meters. Sargent peeled over two seconds off her previous best to finish second at 8:57.08. Halladay-Lowry crossed the finish shortly thereafter with the program’s fifth-fastest 3,000m at 8:57.39. Frentheway cut nearly five seconds off her Jan. 28 personal best with a seventh-place time of 9:08.60.

Sargent, Halladay-Lowry and teammate Jenna Hutchins makeup four of BYU’s 10 fastest women’s 3,000m runners. 

"Good performances all around tonight," said BYU women's distance coach Diljeet Taylor. "It's always nice to continue to get PRs at this point of the season. I'm proud of the efforts all around."

Women’s distance successes continued in Seattle on Saturday with Hutchins arriving on the 5,000-meter top-10 board at No. 7 all-time for the Cougars. Hutchins’ top-10 performance came as she finished fourth at 15:57.96 and flew past the nation’s 13th-ranked 5,000m runner in Zofia Dudek of No. 12 Stanford.

Julie Sumsion, Lindsey Stallworth and Addi Bruening followed in the 5,000m with Sumsion notching a personal best 16:51.17.

Adaobi Tabugbo faced a challenging field of sprinters in the 60-meter hurdles. The event featured two top-10 ranked athletes in Talie Bonds of Arizona (No. 5) and Yanla Ndjip-Nyemeck of UCLA (No. 8). Tabugbo clocked 8.41 in the preliminary round, qualifying for the final and winning her heat over Washington State’s Micaela De Mello. Tabugbo went on to finish seventh in the final with a time of 8.47.

The Cougars begin day two at Dempsey Indoor with Gretchen Hoekstre and Jessica Thompson in the shot put on Saturday at 12 p.m. PST.

BYU Indoor Invitational | Smith Fieldhouse | Provo, Utah

Zoey Bonds recorded personal bests in four of five pentathlon events on her way to winning with an overall personal best score of 3,473. Bonds notched 3,382 at the MPSF Championships just a week ago. Maddy Eaton finished runner-up in the pentathlon with a personal best score of 3,333. Tori Lord took fourth at 3,113 after posting personal bests in all five events.

The BYU women will be back to the track on Saturday beginning with pole vault flights at 12:30 p.m. MST.

PROVO, Utah - No. 21 BYU women’s and No. 25 BYU men’s track and field continue to march toward nationals, splitting up with athletes at Washington’s Ken Shannon Last Chance Invite while also playing host to several schools at the Smith Fieldhouse for the third and final time this indoor season.

Meet Information

Ken Shannon Last Chance Invite

• Host: Washington
• Schedule (*all times PST)
  • Friday’s events start with the women’s pole vault at 12:00 p.m. and conclude with the men’s distance medley relay at 7:40 p.m.
  • Saturday’s events begin with the women’s high jump at 10:00 a.m. and conclude with the men’s 4x400-meter relay at 3:00 p.m.
• General Admission is available for $10 on the day of the meet at the ticket booth, and free for those 12 and under.
• Parking Information

BYU Indoor Invitational III

• Host: BYU
• Schedule (*all times MST)
  • Friday’s events start with the women’s pentathlon 60-meter hurdles at 11:20 a.m. and wrap up with the women’s 800-meter at 2:35 p.m.
  • Saturday’s events begin with the men’s heptathlon 60-meter hurdles at 11:00 a.m. and conclude with the men’s pole vault at 2:30.
• Live Results
• Entry is free and open to the public

National Rankings

Fresh off a sweep at the MPSF Championships, several Cougars continue to hold strong in their place among the national rankings.

During “DMR Weekend” last week, the women’s distance relay team -- Taylor Rohatinsky, Annalise Hart, Alena Ellsworth and Sadie Sargent -- joined forces to smash a new school record (10:49.24) at the Arkansas qualifier, vaulting from No. 9 to No. 4 nationally. The squad competed against several other top DMR squads, including then No. 5 Arkansas, No. 7 Oklahoma State and No. 10 Kentucky.

In addition to the four women on the DMR team, the men’s and women’s teams boast four more top-10 athletes.

Pole vaulter Caleb Witsken continues his run among the elite clearances in the nation thus far with a mark of 5.66m/18-6.75, holding steady for fifth nationally. This past weekend, he competed in the USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico with several top athletes, including U.S. olympian Sam Kendricks.

Senior Aubrey Frentheway is ranked sixth in the nation in the 5000-meter after clocking a 15:32.82 in Boston this month, the third-best time in BYU history. The Cheyenne, Wyoming native currently holds two top-10 times at BYU: the mentioned 5000m and No. 9 in the 3000m (9:13.10). Both were achieved in 2023.

Casey Clinger holds two spots in the top-10 nationally at No. 7 in the 5000m and No. 8 in the 3000m. Both performances have earned him school records this season, including surpassing his own coach Ed Eyestone’s 38 year-old 3000m record on Jan. 27 by over a second at 7:43.96. Clinger is also fresh off running as a member of BYU’s top DMR team in history, registering a 9:21.18 program record on Saturday at Notre Dame.

Cierra Tidwell Allphin, a junior from Gilbert, Arizona, is ranked No. 9 in the high jump after her 1.86m/18-6.75 mark on Feb. 11 at the Jarvis Scott Open at Texas Tech. The clearance ties her up with Nyalaam Jok of Minnesota and Daniella Anglin of South Dakota as her mark is a fourth of an inch away from fifth in the country.