BYU track teams kick off 2018 season with home opener

PROVO, Utah – The BYU men’s and women’s track teams kick off the 2018 indoor season with their home opener on Thursday, Dec. 7.

The two-day event will feature teams from BYU, UVU and Westminster.

Following a successful 2017 cross country season, the BYU track teams hope to continue that success in the upcoming 2018 track and field seasons.  

“This is our opener for the indoor track season,” head coach Ed Eyestone said. “This is going to be a rust buster for those that have been doing conditioning all of fall. We have a lot of athletes that are very excited to race in uniform and have the opportunity to race. It will be an anticipated meet for the majority of our non-distance crew because it’ll be their first time competing since June.”

Noting that many of the top cross country runners won't compete, Eyestone said that there are many athletes to watch for this meet.

Senior Marcus Dickson is one athlete that Eyestone feels will excel. Dickson has been training all of fall after redshirting the last outdoor track season so he will be competing in his first meet in almost a year. Eyestone expects him to run the mile in under 4:05.

Senior Kevin Nielsen will compete in the heptathlon. Eyestone hopes that he will qualify for the indoor national championships for the second year in a row and anticipates a great performance from Nielsen.

In addition, junior Andrea Stapleton is one to watch. She was a qualifier in the indoor national championships for the high jump last year.

Eyestone also looks forward to the 3000m because he has many athletes that are back from their LDS missions and have had the opportunity to train during the cross country season for the upcoming track season. One of these includes freshman Conner Mantz, who was highly recruited out of high school and left for his mission right after graduating. This will give him and many others the chance to race before they compete at important meets later in the season.

This meet gives all of the athletes the opportunity to participate in their various events and have the chance to secure one of the coveted traveling spots for future meets.

The full schedule for the two-day meet can be found here. Live stats can be found here and the meet will be live tweeted on Twitter @BYUTFXC.