Men Bring Home Two Individual Championships on Day One

COLLEGE STATION -- On day one of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, the No. 5 Cougars brought home national championships in not one, but two events in College Station, Texas.

Senior Leif Arrhenius surpassed his lifetime best to win an individual title in the shot put with a mark of 19.92m (65-04.25). Arrhenius earns First Team All-American and will also compete in the weight throw on Saturday.

“It was unbelievable how well he threw,” head coach Mark Robison said. “It was the throw of a lifetime.”

The men’s distance medley relay team set a new facility record with a time of 9:29.28 to win the national title and earn first team All-American honors. The time also breaks the BYU record by over four seconds. Senior Brian Weirich led off with a 2:57.28 split in the 1200m, junior Chris Carter ran the 400m in 47.83, junior Justin Hedin took the 800m in 1:48.05 and junior Miles Batty finished the mile with a 3:56.14 to seal the win.

"The DMR was an incredible but rough race," Robison said. "I knew we had a chance to score some points, but wow."

Batty qualified for the finals in the mile with a time of 4:00.87 to tie for the fastest finish in the prelims. The native of Sandy will compete for an individual championship on Saturday at 4:10 p.m. MT.

BYU had two competitors in the pole vault. Sophomore Victor Weirich grabbed a fifth place finish to earn first team All-American by clearing 5.40m (17-08.50) and scored four points for the team. Senior Chris Little tied for ninth place with a mark of 5.25m (17-02.75) to garner second team honors.

The NCAA Championships will resume Saturday at 11 a.m. MT and conclude with an awards ceremony at approximately 6:50 p.m.

ESPN2 will show a tape delay of the event on March 16 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. ESPN3 will webstream the event on Saturday, March 12 from 4-7:50 p.m. The remainder of the event will be streamed live on NCAA.com.

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