Eaton Leads BYU at UCLA

LOS ANGELES – Freshman Lexi Eaton continued her improvement in the high jump at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational to pace the BYU women’s track and field team on Saturday.

"Lexi Eaton continues to improve every week," BYU head coach Patrick Shane said. "She finished second overall today but only narrowly got beat by a professional. We had a number of other great performances at this meet and overall it was a great day for us." 

Eaton set a personal best in the high jump with a leap of 1.81m (5-11.25) to place first among collegiate competitors at the meet. The mark currently ties Eaton for ninth in the NCAA. This is also the third consecutive meet in which Eaton has set a new personal best.

Competing alongside Eaton in the high jump was teammate Diana Blauer. Blauer set an outdoor season best with a jump of 1.76m (5-9.25).

Senior Christen Guenther placed first among collegians in the pole vault with a jump of 3.97m (13-00.25). Rachel Fisher, Diane McAllister-Perry and Nicole Naatjes all tied for fourth among collegians with vaults of 3.82m (12-6.25).

In her first outdoor meet of the season, senior Lacey Bleazard was the first college competitor to cross the line in the 800m. Bleazard finished in 2:07.78, just ahead of senior Sarah Edwards, who finished in 2:08.06.

In the invitational sections of the sprinting events, Fatima Makakala led with way with a 13.93 finish in the 100m hurdles. Aubrey Hale paced BYU in the invitational 100m with a 12.20 finish.

The open 100m was a strong event for BYU, as Cougars swept the top three spots. Makakala finished first in 12.39 and was followed by Kassie Jensen in second place in 12.53 and Chelsea Spencer in third with a time of 13.02.

BYU also finished 1-2 in the open 400m hurdles, with Diane Stewart leading the way in 1:00.22 and Angela Shields coming in just behind in 1:01.77. Freshman Kaisa Rosenberg also won an open event with her 2:11.70 performance in the open 800m.

Katherine Swanson and Candace Eddy represented the Cougars in the long distance events at the meet. Swanson placed second in the 5000m in 17:26.58 while Eddy nabbed third in the 1500m in 4:27.20.

In the throws, the top performance came from freshman Brianna French, who tossed the discus 46.61m (152-11) to finish third overall.

More results from the meet can be found here.

The Cougars will continue their season on April 19 as the team heads to California to compete in the annual Mt. SAC Relays.