Men Get 14 MWC All-Conference Selections

COLORADO SPRINGS -- After winning a ninth-consecutive Mountain West Conference indoor track and field championship, the No. 5 BYU men’s track team had 14 all-conference selections announced this week.

All-Conference selections are awarded to the top three finishers in each event at the MWC Championships. BYU’s 14 awards were the most in the conference.

Senior Leif Arrhenius picked up recognition in the weight throw (20.19m) and shot put (18.80m) after winning both events. Arrhenius also tied for the High Point Award for scoring his meet-high 20 points. Fellow senior and thrower Oliver Whaley finished second in the weight throw (19.52m) in route to his honor as well.

The 400-meter produced two All-Conference athletes also with junior Chris Carter winning the event in a time of 47.73 and sophomore Sean Adams in 48.16 for the second-place finish.

With another one-two finish in the 800-meter, junior Justin Hedin finished in a time of 1:49.77 for a new meet record and senior Brian Weirich was right behind him with a time of 1:50.60.

Taking the top two spots in an event yet again, sophomore Victor Weirich won the pole vault (5.38m) and senior Chris Little finished in second place (5.28m) to contribute to the Cougars victory and earn their selections.

The jumps featured two athletes garnering honors. Junior Anse Myller DeAraujo finished third in the triple jump (15.15m) and senior Aaron Powell finished second in the long jump (7.12m).

Three distance runners also were recognized. Junior Miles Batty won the mile in a time of 4:15.23 and in the 5,000-meters senior Nathan Ogden finished third in a time of 14:21.32. Freshman Jared Ward ran the 3,000-meters and finished in second place to set a lifetime best time of 8:18.73.

BYU also had both the 4x400 relay team and distance medley relay team honored by the conference. The 4x400 team of Carter, Adams, Hedin and sophomore James Derek McAllister finished in second place (3:12.92). The DMR team including Brian Weirich, Carter, Hedin and Batty won the event in an altitude adjusted time of 9:29.13, good for an NCAA automatic-qualifying time and third best in the NCAA’s.

The Cougars will look to send a few athletes to the Last Chance Invitational this week to improve their marks in order to qualify for the upcoming NCAA Championships.