Porter breaks school record at BYU Invitational

PROVO, Utah – All-American Brenna Porter clocked 56.89 to set a new school record in the 400m hurdles at the BYU Invitational on Thursday.

Porter broke the previous record of 57.08 that was set 20 years ago by Julie Bennion in 1999. This is the senior’s fourth school record of her career. She owns the school record in the indoor 500m (1:11.58) while running on the record-holding distance medley relay team (10:54.14) and indoor 4x400m relay team (3:40.79).

Kaitlyn Gunnerson-Burrup ran a personal-best 59.84 in the 400m hurdles to improve her position to qualify for the NCAA West Prelims. In the men’s 400m hurdles, the Cougars swept the top three positions with Colten Yardley (51.74), Scott Mecham (52.53) and Jesus Serrano (52.53) finished 1-3.

Madey Brooks-Dickson won the women’s mile in 4:50.82. With the conversion, Brooks-Dickson put herself in contention to qualify for regionals.

Derek Sorensen and Michael Bluth clocked potential regional-qualifying times in the men’s 200m. Sorensen ran a season-best 21.03 to improve his qualifying position while Bluth finished in 21.05 to put himself in potential regional-qualifying position. In the women’s 200m, Jaslyn Gardner and Ellie Heiden-Quackenbush both clocked 23.97 to finish 1-2.

Ben Barton leads the decathlon through the first five events with a total score of 3949 while Brian Matthews trails in second place with 3909 points. Barton clocked 10.86 in the 100m for a new personal record while Matthews earned career-best marks in the 100m (11.09) and long jump (6.99m/22-11.25).

Jefferson Jarvis took first place in the men’s shot put with a toss of 18.27m/59-11.25 before placing first in the discus with a mark of 51.86m/170-1.75. Jacob Foutz threw 51.06m/167-6.25 to finish second in the discus while also winning the men’s hammer with a toss of 63.80m/209-3.75. Leah Thompson won the women’s discus with a mark of 45.00m/147-7.75.

Freshman Matt Kitchen capped the meet off with a likely regional-qualifying mark of 65.58m/215-02 in the javelin. Kraymer Eppich (61.90m/203-1) and Michael Whittaker (60.26m/197-8.5) both threw over 60 meters to finish 2-3.

The Cougars will wrap up competition at the BYU Invitational tomorrow before traveling to compete at the Oxy Invitational on Saturday, May 11. Follow @BYUTFXC on Twitter for live team updates. Live stats for both meets can be found on the BYU track and field schedule page.