Four Cougars with top finishes at the Aztec Invitational

San Diego -- In the first day of the Aztec Track & Field Invitational, BYU freshman Dennis Christensen won the shot put with a personal record throw of 54-04.75. BYU had 13 top-10 finishes on the day in its first competition of the outdoor season.

“It was a good day for us overall. We had a lot of guys compete in their first events for us, especially in the throws, and I think we did a good job,” head coach Mark Robison said. “We came here to get our guys a bit of repetition competing outdoors, so hopefully we can keep things going tomorrow.”

Christensen took third in the discus with a throw of 151-11.00. Juniors Seth Weiler and Aaron Clark took fourth and sixth, respectively, in the event with marks of 144-03.00 and 141-02.00.

BYU had four top-10 finishes in the javelin throw. Junior Keith Keller took second with a throw of 211-06.00. Kyle Baker (209-01.00), Chase Dalton (194-00.00) and Joshua Weirich (163-04.00) took third, fifth and eighth, respectively, in the event.

In the open category of the men's pole vault, sophomore Braydon Bringhurst tied for first with a mark of 16-03.50. Freshman John Glazier took second in the long jump with a mark of 23-00.50.

In the 400-meter open run, Cougar sophomore Mario Harper took first with a time of 48.61. Senior Rhyan Atrice took fourth place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.16. It was Atrice’s first race since recovering from an injury during the indoor season.

Tommy Gruenewald took first place in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:49.17 and Bejon Bryant took seventh in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.41.

Competition continues Saturday morning, starting at 9 a.m. PDT.