Regionals on the Horizon

PROVO -- The BYU track and field teams look to enhance their historic 2009 campaign starting with the NCAA West Regional in Eugene, Ore., this weekend.

“This is going to be a great meet,” said BYU women’s head track and field coach Craig Poole. “Our athlete’s are prepared and excited. It will be a good test of our abilities.”

The No. 21 nationally ranked women’s team enters the regional meet with 21 qualifying athletes, while the No. 24 men’s team has qualified 35 athletes.

“We are really excited about this weekend,” said BYU men’s track and field head coach Mark Robison. “Everything to this point has been building up to qualifying for regionals; now regionals is here and we are focusing on qualifying for nationals. Our team has great depth and I this is one of the largest groups of qualifiers we have ever had.”

BYU will face its toughest competition of season when it competes at the world famous Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus. Each Cougar athlete aims to finish in the top five of their entered events, which would automatically qualify them for nationals.

“We’re going into it this meet with the same attitude as we always do,” Poole said. “Our focus will be to take it one athlete at a time and one event at a time.”

The BYU women’s team will look to cap of their track season with another top 5 national ranking. The Cougars ended their indoor season as the No. 3 nationally ranked team, marking the highest finish in school history.

With one of the largest groups BYU has ever had going into regionals, the BYU men’s team looks to improve its 12th-place score from last year.

The two-day meet is scheduled to begin on Friday at 2:40 p.m. PT with the men’s javelin and conclude on Saturday at 4:50 p.m. PT with the men’s 4x400-meter relay.