Cougars capitalize on first home meet of outdoor track and field season

PROVO, Utah – Despite strong winds and a few snowflakes, the BYU Robison Invitational was highlighted by top finishes and regional-qualifying marks for the Cougars as they competed at Clarence Robison Track in Provo, Utah, on Friday and Saturday.

"This meet serves a couple purposes, and one is to give athletes an opportunity to compete having slept in their own bed the night before,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “Usually we get good performances when that happens. The weather was kind of dicey the last few days, but fortunately it cleared up today. Even though we had to battle the wind a bit, I thought our athletes showed great fortitude and determination the way they did. We had some great performances.”

BYU hosted Southern Utah, Idaho State, Utah Valley, Utah State, Weber State, Westminster College and the University of Utah at the invite which began on Friday afternoon and finished up on Saturday evening.

On the day of his college graduation, Zachary Stetler won the Invitational in the shot put with a mark of 18.32m. Teammate Jacob Foutz took second overall in the men’s hammer with a 56.56m throw. For the women, discus thrower Sadie Nielsen took first overall with a mark of 49.38m while Payge Cuthbertson placed first in the javelin with a 46.00m mark.

Jameson Shirley, Raul Rios and Jake Jarvis went two-three-four in the pole vault with marks of 5.32m, 4.97m and 4.97m, respectively, and Kylee Trageser took first place in the pole vault with a 4.00m to represent the women. Shirley also recorded a new personal best and regional qualifier with his mark. 

Women’s jumpers ShyAndrea Jackson, Chloe Hadley and Kiyana Dixon took the top three slots in the triple jump with marks of 12.48, 12.16 and 12.00, respectively. Tomi Adegoke took first in the long jump with a mark of 7.29m while Rickey Fantroy took third in the triple jump with a 14.38 mark. Jackson's mark was also a qualifying time for the regional meet. 

And in the women’s high jump, Andrea Stapleton, Ellyana Long and Margaret Appiah went one-two-three, logging marks of 1.76m, 1.71m and 1.66m, respectively.

In the multi-events, senior Jackson Walker won the decathlon with a total of 7361 points, taking first place in the discus, pole vault and javelin portions of the event. Halley Folsom won the heptathlon with 4802 total points and took first place in the javelin portion.

Clark Brown ran a personal best in the 100-meter finals with a time of 10.35 and finished in second overall behind Tatenda Tsumba who took first place in the 100 meters with a 10.29. Keesha Miller, in the women's 100 meters, set a new personal best and took second overall with a time of 11.77. 

In the 400 meter hurdles, Scott Mecham and Max Scheible took places second and third with Mecham finishing in 51.52 and Scheible in 52.01. Similarly, Kaitlyn Gunnerson took third in the women’s 100-meter hurdles and set a new personal record with a time of 14.21.

In the women's 800 meters, Madeline Brooks, Heidi Fuhriman and McKenna Neyman went one-two-three with times of 2:10.63, 2:12.68 and 2:13.89, respectively. 

Anna Camp won the women’s mile with a time of 4:52.08 while the Cougars claimed five of the top six finishing spots in the men's mile. Rory Linkletter took second place with a 4:05.60 time, Jacob Heslington third with a time of 4:06.91, Clayton Young finished fourth in 4:06.91, Talem Franco fifth in 4:07.25 and Kramer Morton was in sixth with a 4:08.04. Having run qualifying times, Franco and Morton are expected to compete in the 1500 meters at regionals. 

The women's 4x400-meter relay squad came up with a huge come-from-behind victory as anchor Brenna Porter powered past a Utah State Aggie in the last 50 meters to take the win with a time of 3:51.48. The men's 4x100-meter relay placed first overall with a time of 39.79 using the combined efforts of Clark Brown, Tatenda Tsumba, Drew Tingey and Derek Sorensen. Shortly thereafter, Tingey won the 400m with a time of 47.67.

“This meet has set us up will for the upcoming competitions as we finish the season," Eyestone concluded. “We continue to punch the tickets to Austin, and, all in all, it was a great couple of days. It should be onward and upward from here.”

Next, BYU will travel to Los Angeles where they will compete in the Occidental Invitational on Saturday, May 6.