Track Hopes to Bring Home Conference Titles

PROVO -- Bringing the indoor season to a close, the BYU track and field teams travel to Colorado Springs to compete at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships this weekend at the Air Force Academy.

“I feel good about how we’ve declared our athletes for this competition,” said BYU men’s track and field head coach Mark Robision. “We look very solid. Now it just comes down to what it usually does – go and perform like we know we can and we will be fine.”

BYU enters the championships with first place standings in the conference for the women in the 200, 400 and 800-meters, the mile, 3000-meter, 5000-meter, 60-meter hurdles, the distance medley, high jump, long jump and pentathlon. The men are first in the 800-meter, the distance medley, triple jump, shot put and heptathlon.

In hopes of bringing home yet another indoor conference championship title, both teams were idle last weekend in order to best prepare for the upcoming championships. A win this weekend would mark the 25th victory in history for the men and 16th for the women at conference.

The No. 18 Cougar men are going up against Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, TCU and Wyoming, while the No, 14 women's team will take on Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, TCU, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming.

“We’re going to try and put together the best lineup,” said BYU women’s track and field head coach Craig Poole. “We are going to have to perform just as well as we have. There are a lot of good teams in this conference but we are less concerned about the team score than we are of the individual performances.”

The events run Thursday through Saturday, beginning at 11:00 a.m. MST on Thursday with the women’s pentathlon 60-meter hurdles, while the men’s heptathlon begins Thursday at 11:15 a.m. MST.