Fifth Place Finish For BYU Men's Track

NEW YORK -- The No. 18 BYU men’s track team competed in one of the largest indoor meets in the country and came away with 43 points and a fifth place finish at the New Balance Invitational.

“We had some pretty good performances against some phenomenal competition,” head coach Mark Robison said. “I was pleased with how it went considering the competition, its tough to score points at this meet.”

The Cougars fifth place finish is their best finish at the New Balance Invite ever. Several top 25 teams were in attendance including four of the top five teams.

BYU moved up in the standings with help from a one-two finish from sophomore Victor Weirich and senior Chris Little in the championship division of the pole vault. Weirich and Little both managed to clear a mark of 5.40m.

“Having the pole-vaulters go one-two was really important,” Robison said. “This is the best we have ever done at this meet and I was really pleased.”

Senior Nathan Ogden also helped out by picking up a first place finish in the college mile run with a time of 4:08.59. Several distance runners ran in relays at the meet with the 4x800-meter team finishing fourth in the championship division with a time of 7:31.79.

Freshman Ben Johnston scored points for the Cougars by finshing third in the 800-meter college run with a time of 1:54.35.

In two separate 3000-meter divisions, senior Brandon Hebbert finished in 8:22.53 to take fourth place in the championship division with sophomore Rex Sheilds finishing seventh in the college division with a time of 8:20.28.

BYU’s 4x200 relay team of sophomore Sean Adams, freshman Mark Carlson, sophomore Cade Lindahl and junior Steven Hart finished sixth in the championship race with a time of 1:28.42.

The sprints helped BYU out as well, with Adams turning in a 48.18 time for sixth place in the championships while sophomore James Derek McAllister finished in fifth place in the college 200-meter in 22.65 seconds.

For complete results CLICK HERE.

With one of its biggest meets completed, BYU will compete in the Air Force Invitational and Washington Invitational next week.