BYU Women's Track & Field Moves Up to No. 14 in the Nation

NEW ORLEANS — The USTFCCCA has named the BYU women’s track & field team No. 14 in the nation in its weekly rankings release on Monday.

This past weekend at the UW Invite, the women’s Distance Medley Relay Team (DMR) broke the school record with a time of 10:53.95, besting the previous mark of 10:54.14. All-American Anna Camp-Bennett, Alena Ellsworth, All-American Lauren Ellsworth-Barnes and All-American Whittni Orton were the racers in the NCAA-leading relay squad.

The DMR relay team also broke the previous Dempsey Indoor Track Arena facility record (10:55.01) and earned the seventh-fastest time in NCAA history. 

Having a No. 1 ranked squad in the nation helped the Cougars leap 10 spots from 25th to 15th in the span of one week. 

National rankings are determined through a team-rating index. This index is comprised of the top national qualifiers that a team has in various events. For BYU, the following athletes are contributing to the Cougars’ top-15 ranking: DMR team (No. 1) Orton (No. 1 mile, No. 3 5000m), Anna Camp-Bennett (No. 13 800m) and Sophie Lasswell (No. 21 5000m). 

Multiple school-records have been broken already this season, with many athletes jumping onto the BYU top-10 all-time list. Jaslyn Gardner set the women’s 60m record with a time of 7.39, Orton in the mile (4:29.76) and the in the 5000m (15:22.98) to go along with the DMR (10:53.95). 

Sable Lohmeier threw 17.63m/57-10.25 in the weight throw to move up to No. 6 all-time at BYU. Junior Sierra Freeland landed No. 7 all-time after tossing 15.28m/50-01.50 in the women’s shot put. 

The full release can be found on ustfccca.org.