Salt Lake City (May 5, 2009) – The final meet before the Mountain West Conference Championships proved to be a success for the BYU women’s track team at the Utah Twilight meet on Tuesday.

The No. 12 nationally ranked Cougars earned several more regional qualifying marks and personal bests in Salt Lake City.

“Our athletes competed well today,” said BYU women’s track and field head coach Craig Poole. “We had a couple impressive performances and earned more regional qualifying marks.”

Diane Stewart, a sophomore from Spanish Fork, Utah, earned an NCAA regional qualifying mark in the 400-meter hurdle event with a time of 1:00.22. Stewart also had an impressive third-place finish in the 100-meter hurdle event (14.33).

BYU added two more regional qualifying marks in the pole vault event. Kelli Ehardt took first jumping to a personal best height of 13-07.75. And Christene Botteron finished second with a regional qualifying mark of 12-7.50.

The success continued with Samantha Thayne who took second in the 400-meter dash with a personal best time of 56.56.

The throwing squad also had solid results. Rebecca Lee-Gorden earned first in the javelin throw (133-01.71), while Tiana Ili took first among collegiate participants in the shot put (45-05.25).

Similar results came in the triple jump where Kelly Markroft took first with a personal best jump of 37-06.75. Ada Robinson added another personal best to the Cougars success with a second-place finish in the triple jump (36-10.25).

Also taking second was Emily Dunn who finished the 800-meter event in a time of 2:13.00. Following close behind in the same event was Ashlee Thomas who took third with a time of 2:13.22.

The Cougars now return home to prepare for the MWC Championships beginning next week. The team will travel to Laramie, Wyo. in hopes of defending its league title.

PROVO -- In the final meet before the Mountain West Conference Championships, the BYU men’s and women’s track and field teams will compete at the Twilight Invitational hosted by the University of Utah, Tuesday.

“We’ve got a huge group going to this meet,” said BYU men’s track and field head coach Mark Robison. “It will be the last chance for these athletes to qualify for regionals and we have several right on the edge. If we can get them qualified, I will be very happy.”

The first event will begin at 1 p.m. MT with the women’s hammer throw. Following the hammer throw, the men’s pole vault and women’s discus will begin at 4:30 p.m. MT. The women’s shot put followed by the men is the final event scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. MT. The men and women will compete at the East High School Track.

BYU will be competing against Idaho State, NYAC, Southern Utah University, Utah, Utah State, Utah Valley and Weber State.