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Cougars Travel to the Big Apple and Pocatello
The women have provisionally qualified at least one athlete each week of the indoor season for nationals.
Jan. 31, 2007 PROVO, Utah - The BYU men's track team is going to New York this weekend for the Seventh Annual New Balance Invitational. The women's team will head to Pocatello for the ISU Quadrangular meet. With the MWC Indoor Championship meet coming up, both teams are looking for improvements and qualifying marks at these meets. "This is a great opportunity for the guys to get in with some of the best competition in the country," BYU distance coach Ed Eyestone said. "It will be exciting to see how (Kyle) Perry and (Dustin) Bybee will react to the competition. I except them to qualify provisionally in the mile." Perry, an All-American last year in the 1600 meters, came just a few seconds awayfrom qualifying last week at the University of Washington. Bybee finished in front of him and was only two seconds from the 4:04.00 cut off point for nationals. The coaches are looking for athletes to step up like David Pendergrass, who rose to great heights to defeat a Mexican National Team high jumper at the beginning of the season. Pendergrass could use the great competition to reach the provisional mark in the triple jump as well as the high jump. Chris Carter, MWC Champion in the 300 hurdles, ran a blistering 800 last week and could qualify in the event for nationals. He already holds the fastest time in the MWC for the 800 meters. All-American Niklas Arrhenius is also traveling to the Big Apple to compete in the shot put and weight throw. He was only .15 meters from qualifying for the national meet at the BYU Invitational. He and the other Cougars will look to rise to the occasion, as they will face the best in the nation. The women have provisionally qualified at least one athlete each week of the indoor season for nationals. Five more qualified last week, including Kassi Andersen (mile), Whitney McDonald (3000 meters), Ashley McAllister (pole vault), Kamila Rywelska (triple jump) and the Distance Medley Relay team. Coach Poole says they should continue the trend this week. "This week we will try to get a few good marks going into conference," BYU women's head coach Craig Poole said. "Pocatello has a very fast track. The track is wood and not synthetic, and I think we will have some good marks this weekend." Last week, McDonald ran at full strength for the first time in three years and turned in the second-fastest time in the nation. She was joined as a provisional qualifier by Andersen, who has the fifth-fastest time in the nation in the mile. "All the hard work is done and now we will see times start to drop," distance coach Patrick Shane said.
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