Throwers, sprinters shine to start outdoor season at Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. — BYU women’s track and field opened its outdoor season with two event wins and valuable early experience for its freshmen at the Cardinal Classic at Cobb Track and Angell Field on Saturday.

“We are super grateful for Stanford welcoming us into their meet after our original outdoor opener was cancelled,” said BYU sprints coach Kyle Grossarth. “Our athletes performed very well after being away from competition for a few weeks. This was a solid start to the outdoor season.”

BYU’s throwers dominated the javelin competition led by defending national champion Ashton Riner-Lunt. The senior from Connell, Washington kept to her winning ways with a first-place finish after tossing 52.89m/173-6.

Jessica Thompson took second at 47.10m/154-6 with Brekell Gammell (45.14m/148-1) and Mary DeGraffenried (42.74m/140-2) coming in third and fifth, respectively. Gammell, a freshman from Salem, Utah; and DeGraffenried, a freshman from Kanosh, Utah each made their collegiate throwing debuts for the Cougars on Saturday. Thompson won BYU’s second event of the day in the shot put with a throw of 15.26m/50-0.75.

Adaobi Tabugbo took second in both the 200-meters and 100-meter hurdles. At 13.63, Tabugbo came up just a tenth of a second short of her personal-best in the 200.

Meghan Hunter, Dolita Shaw, Krystie Solomon and Marianne Barber combined to clock 3:43.66 and finish third in the 4x400-meter relay. Hunter also took second in the 800-meters at 2:04.48.

BYU’s distance runners controlled the top of the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a finisher in each of the top-four spots. Lizzie Dildine took first at 10:40.00, with Destiny Everett, Allie Warner and Julie Sumsion taking places two through four.