Women's track and field readies eight entries to compete at NCAA Championships

Ashton Riner-Lunt throws the javelin at the 2023 NCAA West Preliminary.

PROVO, Utah — No. 19 BYU women’s track and field will be represented by 11 athletes in eight entries across seven different events at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Mike Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas June 7-10.

Complete BYU Event Schedule

The Cougars’ eight women’s entries are tied for 15th nationally with Iowa, NC State and Nebraska. BYU is one of just 17 programs with eight or more women’s entries. With 17 combined men’s and women’s entries, BYU track and field is tied for 13th nationally with 2024 conference counterpart Oklahoma. BYU is one of just 16 programs nationwide with 15 or more combined entries.

A season ago, BYU boasted two national champions in Ashton Riner-Lunt (javelin throw) and Courtney Wayment (3,000-meter steeplechase). Riner-Lunt and Wayment joined heptathlete Halley Folsom Walker in earning First Team All-American honors and scoring points that helped the Cougars finish tied for ninth as a team.

In 2023, BYU will seek its first sequence of three-consecutive top-10 team finishes since doing so 1998-2000.

Riner-Lunt and Wayment’s 2022 national title performances gave the Cougars 18 all-time women’s individual national champions and its sixth time to do so in back-to-back seasons after Anna Camp-Bennett took home the 1,500-meter hardware in 2021.

Riner-Lunt looks to become BYU’s fourth all-time repeat national champion and third to do so in consecutive seasons. Tiffany Lott-Hogan won the heptathlon in back-to-back seasons (1997-98) while Anna Mosdell did so in the discus throw (1991-92). Themis Zambrzycki, the program’s first-ever national champion, won the pentathlon in 1978 and again in 1980.

Austin has been kind to BYU in the past as the Cougars have seen three previous women’s championships won there. Zambrzycki won her second pentathlon there in 1980. Anu Kaljurand took home the heptathlon title from Austin in 1992 while Mosdell won her second straight discus title there that same season.

Ashton Riner-Lunt | Javelin Throw

Senior | Connell, Washington | Connell HS
PR: 60.36-meters/198-0 (April 2022, BYU Robison Invitational)
Season-best: 55.57m/182-4 (May 25 at NCAA West Preliminary)
Finished fifth at the NCAA West Preliminary.
Looks to defend her 2022 javelin national title (58.24m/191-1) in her third-career nationals' appearance.
Looks to become BYU's fourth all-time repeat women's outdoor national champion and first since Tiffany Lott-Hogan won the heptathlon in 1997-98.
Ranks No. 1 all-time at BYU in the women's javelin throw.

Adaobi Tabugbo | 4x100m Relay

Senior | Laurel, Maryland | Reservoir HS
100m PR: 11.77 (April 8 at Trojan Invitational)
200m PR: 24.01 (May 13 at BYU Last Chance Meet)
100H PR: 13.29 (May 27 at NCAA West Preliminary)
Ranks No. 5 all-time at BYU in the women's outdoor 100-meter hurdles.
2023 marks her first-career outdoor nationals' appearance.
Has contributed to four school record-setting 4x100m squads at BYU.

Jaslyn Gardner | 4x100m Relay

Junior | Enterprise, Utah | Enterprise HS
100m PR: 11.35 (April 2021 at BYU Robison Invitational)
200m PR: 23.47 (April 2021 at BYU Robison Invitational)
Ranks No. 1 all-time at BYU in the outdoor women's 100m and No. 3 in the 200m.
2023 marks her first-career outdoor nationals' appearance.

Dolita Shaw | 4x100m Relay

Sophomore | Grays, United Kingdom | Southend HS
100m PR: 12.04 (April 2022 at Desert Heat Classic)
200m PR: 24.06 (May 13 at BYU Last Chance Meet)
2023 marks her first-career outdoor nationals' appearance.

Marianne Barber | 4x100m Relay and 4x400m Relay

Freshman | Farmington, Utah | Farmington HS
100m PR: 11.74 (April 29 at Desert Heat Classic)
200m PR: 23.43 (May 13 at BYU Last Chance Meet)
400m PR: 54.46 (April 22 at BYU Robison Invitational)
While just a freshman, ranks No. 2 all-time at BYU in the women's outdoor 200m and No. 10 in the 400m.
Will serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Yakima, Washington beginning in July 2023.

Lexy Halladay-Lowry | 3,000m Steeplechase

Sophomore | Boise, Idaho | Mountain View HS
PR: 9:42.12 (May 6 at Sound Running Track Fest)
Finished sixth at the NCAA West Preliminary with a time of 9:46.02.
Ranked No. 2 all-time at BYU in the women's steeplechase behind only defending national champion Courtney Wayment.
Ranks No. 6 nationally.
Looks to become BYU's fifth all-time women's steeplechase national champion.
2023 marks her second straight outdoor nationals' appearance.

Claire Seymour | 800m and 4x400m Relay

Senior | Modesto, California | Enochs HS
800m PR: 2:00.04 (April 14 at Bryan Clay Invitational)
400m PR: 53.69 (April 2022 at Bryan Clay Invitational)
Finished ninth at the NCAA West Preliminary with a time of 2:04.75.
Ranks No.1 all-time at BYU in the women's outdoor 800m and No. 5 in the 400m.
Ranks second nationally in the 800m behind only Michaela Rose of No. 7 LSU.
Looks to become BYU's third all-time women's outdoor 800m champion and first since Nachelle Stewart-Mackie in 2012.
Joins Sarah Hendrick of Kennesaw State as one of two current athletes nationwide to qualify for both indoor and outdoor nationals in each of the last three seasons.

Meghan Hunter | 800m and 4x400m Relay

Junior | Provo, Utah | Provo HS
800m PR: 2:04.27 (May 2021 American Track League Meet)
400m PR: 53.81 (May 2022 at BYU Last Chance Meet)
Ran 2:05.35 to finish 13th at the NCAA West Preliminary.
Ranks No. 6 all-time at BYU in the women's outdoor 400m.
2023 marks her second-career outdoor nationals' appearance and first since 2021.

Aubrey Frentheway | 10,000m

Senior | Cheyenne, Wyoming | Cheyenne Central HS
PR: 32:28.85 (May 25 at NCAA West Preliminary)
Broke her own school record to finish fourth at the NCAA West Preliminary.
Ranks No. 9 nationally.
2023 marks her second straight outdoor nationals' appearance.
Looks to become BYU's second all-time women's 10,000m national champion and first since Tara Northcutt-Rohatinsky in 2000.

Brilee Pontius | 4x400m

Sophomore | Saratoga Springs, Utah | Westlake HS
200m PR: 24.21 (May 13 at BYU Last Chance Meet)
400m PR: 54.63 (May 2022 at BYU Last Chance Meet)
2023 marks her first-career national championship appearance.

Cierra Tidwell Allphin | High Jump

Junior | Gilbert, Arizona | Highland HS
PR: 1.88m/6-2 (April 15 at Mt. SAC Relays)
Cleared 1.82m/5-11.5 to tie for ninth at the NCAA West Preliminary.
Ranks No. 3 nationally.
Tied for No. 2 all-time at BYU in the women's outdoor high jump with Melinda Hale (1994).
Looks to break Andrea Stapleton-Johnson's school record clearance of 1.89m/6-2.5 set in 2019.
2023 marks her third-career outdoor nationals' appearance.
Looks to become BYU's first-ever women's high jumper to win a national title across indoor or outdoor competition.

4x100m Relay Squad

Adaobi Tabugbo, Jaslyn Gardner, Dolita Shaw and Marianne Barber combined to clock a school-record 43.84, finish 10th at the NCAA West Preliminary and qualify for the program's first-ever women's 4x100m relay entry at outdoor nationals.
Tabugbo, Gardner, Barber and Emma Johnson previously broke the school record with a time of 44.57 at the Desert Heat Classic on April 29.
Ranked No. 20 nationally.

4x400m Relay Squad

Meghan Hunter, Marianne Barber, Brilee Pontius and Claire Seymour combined to clock a school-record 3:32.88, finish ninth at the NCAAA West Preliminary and advance to outdoor nationals.
Hunter and Seymour also powered the squad to its last school-record performance at the May 2021 regional meet in College Station, Texas.
BYU women's 4x400m relay squads have made two previous appearances at outdoor nationals, in 2021 and 2018.
Look to become BYU's first-ever women's 4x400m First Team All-Americans.

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