Women's 4x100 squad breaks school record in back-to-back seasons

TUCSON, Ariz. — No. 14 BYU women’s track and field achieved 12 personal bests and a school record time in the 4x100-meter relay during competition at the Desert Heat Classic on Saturday at Roy P. Drachman Stadium.

The 4x100 squad of Adaobi Tabugbo, Emma Johnson, Marianne Barber and Jaslyn Gardner combined to clock a school-record 44.57, taking fifth in a talented field that included No. 11 Oregon.

Saturday marks just one year since the Cougars last notched a school-record in the 4x100. Tabugbo combined with Taye Raymond Holker, Dolita Shaw and Annalise Hart to do so at the 2022 Desert Heat Classic with a time of 44.63.

The Cougars’ closed the night with the 4x400-meter relay squad of Barber, Hart, Shaw and Brilee Pontius finishing third at 3:38.67.

BYU sprinters saw plenty of individual success in Tucson as well.

Gardner and Barber followed-up their 4x100 performance with top-10 finishes in the 100-meters shortly thereafter. Gardner took sixth at 11.62 and Barber seventh at 11.74. With that new personal-best, Barber is just four-hundredths of a second off surpassing Keesha Miller (2018) for No. 10 all-time at BYU.

Tabugbo took the Cougars’ top spot in the 100-meter hurdles with a 15th-place finish at 13.92. Zoey Bonds, Maddy Eaton, Tori Lord and Eva Chenn each finished behind Tabugbo but each with a personal best.

Tabugbo, Eaton, Lord, Bonds and Chenn also set personal bests in the 200-meters with Tabugbo as  BYU’s top-finisher yet again. The senior from Laurel, Maryland cut 0.14 seconds off her previous best to finish 16th at 24.07 on Saturday.

BYU women’s track and field is back on the road next weekend with distance runners competing at the Oxy Invitational in Los Angeles, California on May 6.