Day One Has Four Advance To Nationals

EUGENE, Ore. -- On day one of competition at the NCAA West Preliminary Round the BYU men’s track team had four athletes qualify for the NCAA Championships and three more advance to more competition on Friday and Saturday.

All three pole vaulters sent to Eugene, Oregon for the meet managed to qualify for Nationals. Senior Chris Little and sophomore Victor Weirich both cleared 5.20m (17-00.75) for a one-two finish in the prelim round and senior Tanner Emrich finished 11th, clearing 5.15m (16-10.75).

Senior Leif Arrhenius also punched his ticket to the Championships in the shot put. He had a best throw of 18.76m (61-06.75) to finish in third place. Arrhenius will also compete in the discus throw on Saturday. Junior Colby Barber also competed in the shot put, finishing with a throw of 15.38m (50-5.50).

In the 1500m, two athletes qualified for quarterfinals on Saturday. Junior Miles Batty won his heat with a 3:47.30 and sophomore Travis Fuller took third in the same heat with a 3:48.40 to move on.

Junior Justin Hedin also qualified for quarterfinals on Friday in the 800m with a third place finish in his heat and a time of 1:51.00. Senior Brian Weirich fell just short of qualifying with a time of 1:51.30.

Competing in the javelin throw, junior Chris Reno missed qualifying for Nationals just barely, needing a top-12 finish but taking 13th with a 67.65m (221-11.00)throw.

BYU also had three runners in the 10,000 meters. Freshman Jared Ward finished in 24th with a time of 29:56.95 and sophomore Rex Shield and Brandon Hebbert took 30th and 34th with times of 30:05.09 and 30:07.87, respectively.

Day two of the NCAA West Regional Prelims will continue tomorrow at 11 a.m. MT. For results from today's events and to follow tomorrow's action, CLICK HERE.

The University of Oregon will be doing a webcast of events tomorrow at 4 p.m. MT on www.goducks.com