SEATTLE—Jared Ward and Braydon Bringhurst led a group of Cougars at the MPSF Championships who set personal bests and qualified for the upcoming NCAA Indoor meet.

“We had some great performances,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We went in with overall team goals to get 36 personal bests between the men and the women and we came within one of that, so it was an overall good team performance.”

Ward, already a national qualifier in the 5000 meters, took sixth in the 3000 meters with a time of 7:52.51, good for a spot in the national meet and the No. 4 best time in BYU history.

Bringhurst took second in the pole vault as the highest placing Cougar in any event for the meet, clearing 5.45 meters (17 feet 10.5 inches).

“Braydon has been one of our most consistent performers all season,” Eyestone said. "He showed up again today and was one of the highlights of the meet."

Joshua Weirich set a personal best with 5494 points in the heptathlon, good for fourth place. Jason Witt ran a 13:42.17 in the 5000 meters, the 20th fastest time in the country this year and good for fourth place in the meet. Zachary Stetler set a personal best in the shot put with a mark of 17.81 meters (58 feet 5.25 inches) to finish in fifth place. 

Full results can be found at GoHuskies.com.

BYU next competes at the NCAA Indoor Championships March 14-15 in Albuquerque, N.M. before the beginning of the outdoor season. 

PROVO, Utah—BYU track will head to Seattle for the third time this season, this time to compete in the MPSF Championships with hopes to qualify more athletes for the upcoming NCAA Indoor Championships.

“We really want to do well at nationals, and to do that we need to get more qualifiers,” head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We should have a good showing and up our team ranking as well. We can do it, we just need to step up.”

Jared Ward will compete in the 3000 meters with hopes to qualify for his second event at nationals, as he has already posted a qualifying time in the 5000 meters.

Jason Witt and Tylor Thatcher, both All-Americans in cross country, will run the 5000 meters for a shot at the national meet as well.

Joshua Weirich will look to improve his chances by upping his score in the heptathlon.

“I challenged the team to have their best marks of the season this week, so hopefully we see a majority of the team show up with their best effort,” Eyestone said.

The Cougars are also looking for strong performances from their high jumpers, as Zachary Blackham, Sam Rockwood and Dakoda John all cleared 2.12 meters (6’11.5”) this season, tied for the seventh best mark in the conference.

Braydon Bringhurst comes into the meet with the highest mark in the conference in the pole vault at 5.50 meters (18’0.5”) and will be the favorite to win the MPSF championship.

The meet will run Friday and Saturday, Feb. 28- March 1. Friday’s events will begin at noon PST and conclude with the men’s and women’s distance medley relay at 7:10 p.m. and 7:25 p.m., respectively. Saturday’s slate begins at 10:30 a.m. PST and finishes close to 3 p.m. For live stats, visit the event page on BYUCougars.com. A full schedule can be found on the meet information page.