Szmuda, Women's 10,000-meter Runners Dominate

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STANFORD -- BYU men's and women's track and field teams qualified four athletes for the NCAA Meet and 13 athletes for the Mountain Regional Meet, while compete at the Stanford Invitational this weekend.

The women's team showed its dominance it the 10,000-meter run by automatically qualifying three runners for nationals and provisionally qualifying one runner. Lindsey Thomsen (33:25.30), Devra Vierkant (33:29.97) and Kristen Ogden (33:35.83) posted automatic qualifying times, and Lisa Antonelli (34:47.39) posted a provisional qualifying time.

Laura Turner ran the 5,000-meter run in 16:41.73 to qualify for the regional meet. Anita Nygaard also qualified for regionals in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:01.39. Javelin thrower Missy Wood posted another regional qualifying mark and a season best of 151-06 (46.18m).

Women's head coach Craig Poole said, "We did some good things. I'm very pleased with our progress. The kids are working hard and doing very well."

Eleven athletes on the men's track and field team qualified for the regional meet. The standout of the meet was jumper Aron Szmuda. Szmuda placed second in the long jump with a leap of 25-03.25 and then won the triple jump with a distance of 52-09.25, regionally qualifying in both events.

In the 800-meter run, Chad Simkins finished in 1:50.60 to qualify for regionals. Nate Robison and Bryan Lindsey both qualified in the 1,500-meter run. Robison had a time of 3:43.90, the fifth fastest in BYU history, and Lindsay had a time of 3:48.26.

Qualifying in the 5,000-meter run, Chad Durham ran a time of 14:11.41, and Andy Carman followed close behind in 14:24.89. In the 5,000-meter B race Dan Hinckley had a time of 14:24.38. In the steeplechase Matt Adams (9:02.19) and Rich Evanson (9:03.82) both qualified for regionals.

Newcomer Robbie Pratt competed in the pole vault for the first time in three years and jumped 17-10.5 (5.45m) to place fourth in the Elite Section. Trent Powell placed second in the B section with a height of 17-00.75 (5.20m).

"The conditions were perfect," commented men's head track coach Mark Robison. "We did a heck of a lot better than last meet, and we are coming along well."