Cougars compete at NCAA Indoor Championships

PROVO, Utah – Four athletes represented the BYU men's track and field team during the first day of the NCAA Indoor National Championships on Friday at Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.

For the first time since 2007, BYU failed to score any points at the national meet.

"It was disappointing we weren't able to do better," head coach Mark Robison said. "It's been a long time since we didn't score a point at nationals. The only positive is that this gets us motivated to go out and have a good outdoor season."

Jared Ward took ninth in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 13:54.04. Tylor Thatcher ran the race in 14:12.55, finishing in 15^th place.

In the 800-meter preliminary round, Ryan Waite took 13^th overall in 1:49.77. Waite missed qualifying for the finals by less than a second.

"We went in optimistic, but we just couldn't get things going," Robison said. "The field was outstanding this year, but we were hoping we could go in and perform better and just didn't pull it off."

Victor Weirich finished 13^th overall in the pole vault finals with a mark of 17-08.50.

The Cougars open their outdoor track and field season next weekend at the San Diego State Invitational.

Complete results from the 2013 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships