Fisher Breaks School Record, Qualifies for Nationals in Pole Vault

ALBQUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Feb. 26, 2010) – Rachel Brooke Fisher broke the all-time BYU record in the pole vault with a mark of 4.25 meters to earn All-MWC honors at the MWC Championships on Friday as the Cougar women’s team finished in first after the first full day of competition.

Fisher, only a freshman, automatically qualified for the NCAAs and finished second only to San Diego State’s Stephanie James, who set a conference-record height of 4.30 meters.

“It was really nice to jump well,” Fisher said. “I didn’t expect to really do this well, so it’s great. I felt rested and well-prepared and it finally came together in a meet.”

Mindy McClurkin also set a school record in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash, reaching the finish in 7.43 to easily qualify for the final on Saturday. McClurkin also earned All-Conference for herself and eight points for her team in the long jump, going 6.32 meters. The senior will also participate in the 200-meter finals after recording the fastest time in qualifying.

“We qualified about everywhere we had planned on,” said BYU head coach Craig Poole. “Our objective was to score as strong as possible, so we deployed our team maybe not in the strongest combination for NCAA, but for the strongest combination to win points.”

BYU claimed 19 points in the 5,000-meter race alone, finishing second, third and fourth. Junior Katie Bowen and freshman Nicole Nielsen earned All-Conference while sophomore Katy Andrews finished .02 behind Nielsen for fourth overall.

The Cougars are in a comfortable first place with 72 points, twice as many as TCU and San Diego State, both of which finished the first day with 30 points.

Junior Leli Fotu, junior Deezbaa Whaley and sophomore Cassandra Woodall all earned points for BYU in the weight throw. Fotu placed fourth, Whaley finished in sixth and Woodall placed seventh with a personal best throw of 16.86 meters.

In the relays, Sarah Yingling, Mindy Robins, Lacey Cramer and Sarah Edwards combined to place second in the distance medley relay and earn All-Conference.

BYU dominated the 800 meter qualifying, taking four of the top six spots. Nachelle Stewart, defending national and conference champion Cramer and Angela Wagner took the top three spots with Nichole Clark qualifying at sixth overall.

Senior Amy Otis placed first in 60-meter hurdle qualifying with sophomore Fatima Makakala coming in at fourth to also advance to the finals.

Also moving on to finals competition were Natalie Stewart in the 400 meters and Porshe Giddings in the 60-meter dash and 200 meters.

CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

CLICK HERE for complete results at the MWC's official website.