Blackham, Tsumba crack top-10 in BYU history

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – High jumper Zachary Blackham and sprinter Tatenda Tsumba both cracked the top-10 in BYU indoor history in the high jump and 200m, respectively, at the Air Force Invitational this weekend.

BYU associate head coach Mark Robison was encouraged by what he saw from both athletes. Blackham jumped 7’ 2.25”, good for sixth all-time in BYU indoor history. Tsumba ran 21.16 in the 200m for fifth all-time.

“On the men’s side, (Zach) Blackham moved up on the all-time board. That was his lifetime best indoors. It might be good enough to get him into nationals,” Robison said. “Last year somebody got in with that mark.”

“Tsumba did well. He had his seasonal best in the 200m," Robison said.

The Cougars finished second as a team with 101 points, but Robison says the focus at this point in the season is getting better at each meet. Air Force finished first overall with 160 points.

“We had some improvements. People are getting better and that’s really what we’re looking for from week to week,” he said. “The indoor season is short so you need to have a pretty quick learning curve. Each week you have to improve and get more reps to be a little better.”

The BYU 4x400m team won this weekend and John Glazier won the long jump with a mark of 7.48m.

Both Kevin Nielsen and Jackson Walker performed well in in the heptathlon. However, neither athlete finished the event because they couldn’t increase the team score.

In the 400m, Mark Carlson took second place overall (48.30) while Jesse White had a solid fourth place finish (48.97).

The BYU pole vaulters continued to improve in Colorado. In the first meet of the season for Kyle Brown, he vaulted 5.05m and Jameson Shirley equaled the mark.

“I was pleased with the overall effort,” Robison said. “If we can just keep building over the course of the next five weeks then we can have several people get to nationals. We need to stay healthy, and we didn’t have anyone get hurt this weekend. We just have to get a little better each week and I think we will be good.”

Click here for complete meet results.

Next up for BYU track and field is a trip to Seattle for the Washington Invitational on Jan. 29-30.