BYU Stays Home to Compete in Cougar Invitational

PROVO -- The BYU men's and women's track and field teams' first home meet of the season saw the Cougars turn in three national qualifying marks and take 10 event titles at the Cougar Invitational.

The best mark of the meet for the Cougars came from Lindsay Johnson, who had an automatic qualifying throw of 172-03.00 (52.50) to win the javelin. She was followed by teammate Missy Wood, who turned in a provisional mark of 156-00.50 (47.56) to finish second in the javelin.

The other national qualifier from the meet was Nikki Hughes, who had a provisional qualifying leap of 20-05.75 (6.24) to win the long jump for BYU.

"Things are starting to come together for our team and we are looking good," BYU women's head coach Craig Poole said. "We added some new people that I did not think we would have for this meet and that changed the dynamic of our team a bit but we are on the way to where we want to be."

Jennifer Rockwell turned in the quickest time in the 400, winning the event in 55.91 seconds. Kassi Andersen also turned in a strong performance on the track, claiming the 800 crown in a time of 2:11.36.

Other Cougar winners on the women's side included Katie Moon, who won the 1500 in 4:44.26. Candace Clifford cleared a height of 5-08.25 (1.73) to win the high jump and Lindsey Sommer won the triple jump with a mark of 37-09.50 (11.52). The women's 4x400 team won in a time of 3:51.37.

The men were led by David Pendergrass, who won the triple jump with a mark of 47-07.25 (14.51). Pendergrass also cleared a season-best height of 6-08.75 (2.05) to finish third in the high jump.

Eric Myrup claimed the 110-meter hurdle crown in 14.73 seconds and Dan Arrhenius rounded out BYU's individual winners on the day with a toss of 168-11.75 (51.51) in the discus.

"Overall, I thought this was a very good meet for us,"men's head coach Mark Robison said. "The weather was beautiful and we had a nice crowd. We turned in some good marks and saw quite a bit of improvement."

In addition to the Cougar Invitational, both teams sent athletes to Austin, Texas to compete in the Texas Relays over the weekend.

The men's 4x400 team turned in a time of 3:07.55 in an early heat race, just five-hundredths of a second off a provisional qualifying mark. Bad weather slowed the team in the finals but the Cougars won the race in 3:09.61.

Greg Flint also narrowly missed a provisional mark in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing fourth in 51.46 seconds.