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Marks Improve for Cougars before MWC Indoor Championships
Feb. 10, 2007 PROVO, Utah - BYU men's and women's coaches wanted to make improvements this week and qualify more athletes for the national indoor meet. Both teams split up this weekend, most of the distance runners competed at the University of Washington and the rest went to Albuquerque, New Mexico. "We had a good meet we won even though we didn't have our distance members," BYU women's head coach Craig Poole said. "All in all the team is really coming to together and we are really pleased. Conference meet will be exciting. This year will be really tough to decide who will go and compete. This is probably the best meet we've had all season." Mindy Neeley improved on many of her marks. She cut two tenths of a second off her 60 meters, nearly half a second off her 200-meters time and helped take four seconds off the 4x400-meter relay time. Another notable improvement came from All-American Kamila Rywelska, who sailed 42 feet 4.25 inches in the triple jump where she has already provisionally qualified for nationals. Heidi Magill provisionally qualified for the mile with her time of 4:46.09. In the pole vault, Kelly Furr improved her season best by two and a half inches to clear 13 feet 1 inch. Several of the throwers improved their marks. Tipaleli Fotu crushed her season best mark in the weight throw by more than three feet with her throw of 61 feet 9.5 inches. Rachelle Nevitt also improved her season best by almost two feet. Freshmen Megan Tyler and Madara Dzalbe both posted season best throws in the shot put. "We ran Mindy (Neeley), Nicole Nevitt, Sandra Mazan and Diane Stewart in the 4x400-meter relay," coach Poole said. "They all ran under 50 seconds for their leg. They ran a strong race and really ran hard." "Nate page ran the fastest time we've had anybody run this year," BYU men's head coach Mark Robison said. "All the hurdlers had personal records and so did the throwers except Niklas (Arrhenius). I am very pleased. This was our best meet of the season and it will be good to get a week off before the Mountain West Conference meet." The men ran hard and found winning improvements as well. Chris Carter improved his MWC best 400-meter time with his 47.80-second performance. Jacob Garlick also shaved time off his 60-meter-hurdle time by finishing in 8.05 seconds. David Pendergrass cleared 7 feet 1.75 inches to take first in the high jump and improve his chances of getting the nod to compete at the national meet. He will defend his MWC high jump crown in two weeks at the MWC Indoor meet where he won the event last year. Robert Low also improved his season best mark and cleared 17 feet 3.5 inches. That was good enough to put him above the provisional mark of 17 feet .75 inches. Matt Weirich also cleared the same height as Low, which was also a new season high. Freshman Colby Barber who threw the shot put 52 feet .5 inches. Freshman Daniel Lawson also improved his season best mark by throwing the shot 51 feet 2.75 inches. Noah Garfield, usually a heptathlete, threw a season best 36 feet 7 inches. Kyle Perry was able to shave a little time off his mile and Tyrel Jensen also cut a few seconds off his mile time and won his heat. In the 800 meters Jacob Gustafsson won his heat by a comfortable margin to finish in 1:50.66 a season best. It was also his first meet of the season. Jason Dorais won his heat of the 800 meters in a time of 1:53.23. "The 800 meters was the best race by far," BYU men's assistant coach Ed Eyestone said. "The guys looked great and (Jacob) Gustafsson ran a great race for his first meet of the season."
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