Season Bests, Personal Records at Twilight Meet

PROVO, Utah -- In the final meet of the 2011 outdoor season, the BYU women’s track and field team finished the BYU Twilight Meet with 13 event wins and several personal and season best performances.

“We had a lot of great performances today,” head coach Patrick Shane said. “We finally had some warm weather and that helped our sprinters and power people really step up. We had plenty of personal and season bests today.”

Senior Porshe Giddings used the warm weather to run her best 100m time of the season, winning the event in 11.60, tied for the third-fastest time in BYU history. Just behind Giddings in second was teammate Aubrey Hale, finishing in personal best time of 11.76.

Giddings and Hale also competed in the 200m dash, with Giddings winning her second race of the day in a season best time of 24.09. Hale again finished second to Giddings, crossing the line in 24.86.

In the 400m, BYU runner Natalie Stewart competed unattached, finishing in 53.05, the second fastest 400m time in school history. Juniors Lacey Bleazard and Katie Palmer also competed in the race, finishing second and third, respectively.

Bleazard and Palmer also ran on the winning 4x400m team alongside Sarah Edwards and Nicole Clark. The four combined to finish first in 3:53.54.

The Cougars also performed well in the 1500m run, taking four of the top five spots. Sophomore Candace Eddy crossed the line in first in 4:34.28 and Lisa Drury followed closely behind in 4:37.93 to take second. Michaelanne Laurent and Katie Swanson placed third and fifth, respectively.

Another BYU runner that nabbed first in her event was junior Fatima Makakala. Makakala placed first in the 100m hurdles in 13.59, a personal best, and also took second in the long jump with a leap of 5.72m (18-9.25).

In the field, junior Ada Robinson cleared a season best 1.81m (5-11.25) in the high jump to win the event. Teammate Diana Blauer took second in the event by clearing 1.76m (5-9.25), a personal best for outdoor competition.

The pole vault also featured a pair of Cougars at the top, with Kelli Ehardt taking first with a height of 4.10m (13-5.50), a season best, and Christen Botteron snagging second by clearing 4.00 (13-1.50).

Amber Freeman led four BYU athletes in the javelin, taking first with a toss of 44.16m (144-10). Cougars Allyson Wardell (second), Julie Larson (third) and Erin Wells (fourth) took the next three spots.

“This meet gave us a good idea of what we can accomplish at the MWC meet,” Shane said. “We finally had an opportunity to compete in some great weather and set some great marks before the conference meet.”

For complete results CLICK HERE.

BYU will compete in the MWC Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the final time next week beginning with the multi-events on May 11. The meet will continue through May 14.