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BYU Sweeps Men's and Women's Inaugural Track and Field Championships Air Force men finish second, best conference finish in school history.
May 20, 2000
PROVO, Utah (May 20, 2000) - After leading by just eight points entering the final day of competition at the inaugural Mountain West Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the BYU men outdistanced the field by 134.50 points to record its thirteenth league title in the past 16 years, including its third straight. The Cougars recorded 213.50 points in the final day of competition to post a meet-best 286.50 points over the four-day competition. Air Force finished in second place with 152 points, marking the highest-ever finish for the Academy in both outdoor and indoor league championship competition. Wyoming captured third place with 148 points, while Colorado State finished in fourth with 142.50 points. New Mexico took fifth with 45 points, followed in sixth place by Utah with 31 points. All totaled, BYU earned nine first-, second- and third-place finishes throughout the day, including the highly contested 4x100-meter relay. The foursome of Thobias Akwenye, Cody Fonnesbeck, Slade Combs and Kenneth Andam recorded a season-best, NCAA provisional mark of 39.40, followed by Colorado State (39.70), Wyoming (40.54), New Mexico (41.45) and Air Force (42.53). For the women, BYU claimed its 18th straight league championship, running away from the competition with 236 points. The Cougars, ranked in the top-10 in the country, picked up 142 points on Saturday to finish 107 points ahead of second-place finisher UNLV. The Rebels recorded 129 points, followed in third by Wyoming with 121.50 points. Colorado State finished in fourth with 108.50 team points, while San Diego State earned a fifth-place finish with 80 points. New Mexico finished in sixth with 71 points, followed by Utah in seventh with 50 points. Air Force finished eighth with 22 points. In the men's discus Colorado State took the top-two spots after Casey Malone nailed an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 201'-5" and Brian Trainor recorded a mark of 192'-5" to pick up 18 team points for the Rams. Wyoming's Jason Gervais finished in third with a provisional mark of 190'-7". Wyoming took the lead in team scoring after the triple jump, taking the top-two spots in the event. Quincy Howe won the competition with a provisional qualifying mark of 52'-9.25", while Mervin Swaby placed second for the Cowboy's with a mark of 49'-1". Air Force recorded 15 points in the event with a third-, fourth- and fifth-place finish to move into third place. In the 100-meter high hurdles, the Cougars swept the first six spots, earning a team, single-event meet record 36 points to take over first place from Wyoming. Combs tallied a season-best 14.18, followed by Kyle Grossarth (14.30), Russ Elggren (14.43), Hyrum Prince (14.64), Chris Kemp (14.77) and Dan Visser (14.96). In the 1500-meters, CSU's Bryan Berryhill recorded a 3:47.42 to win the event. Utah's Chris Merkley finished second with a time of 3:48.51. Joe Lopez (3:49.90) and Brian Carpenter (3:50.44) of Air Force finished third and fourth, respectively. Berryhill also won the 800-meters, turning in a time of 1:49.03. BYU's Jeff Hopkinson finished second (1:50.85), edging CSU's Joey Alzola (1:51.87) by just over one second. In the pole vault, Jeremy Kemp improved his lifetime best by more than 10 inches, recording a provisional qualifying mark of 17'- 4.5" to win the event. Jake Gensic recorded an outdoor, personal-best mark of 17'-00.75" to record the third best height in Air Force history to finish second in the event. BYU's Curtis Pugsley, who won the decathlon two days prior, finished third with a height of 16'-06.75". The Academy's Kevin Griswold eclipsed his previous best (47.10), recording a time of 46.43 to win the 400 meters. Griswold's time ranks second in Air Force history, behind former Olympian Alonzo Babers who set the school record (45.36) in 1983. Wyomings Maxime Charlemagne finished second in a time of 46.99. BYU's David Chesser took third, finishing in 47.59. In the 100-meters, pre-race favorite Kenneth Andam edged teammate Thobias Akwenye by just under two-tenths of a second. Andam picked up 10 more points for the Cougars with a 10.27 in the event. Akwenye ran 10.46, while Colorado State's Sean Ingram finished third in a time of 10.49. The 200-meters was not much different. Andam recorded a season-best, provisional time of 20.68 to win the event, while Akwenye finished second in a time of 20.74. Griswold finished third in a school record 20.96 to give the Falcons six more points and take a narrow two-point lead over Wyoming for second place in the team standings. The Cougars eclipsed the 200-point mark after the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, capturing three of the top-four spots. Grossarth won the event in a time of 50.13, while Wyoming's Seth Billy finished second in a time of 51.21. BYU's Chris Kemp finished third (51.52), while Russ Elggren finished fourth in a time of 51.57. The Cougars extended their lead after taking three of the top-four spots in the high jump. Senior Marc Chenn added his name to the list of athletes heading to Durham, N.C. for the NCAA National Championships at the end of the month. Chenn's winning mark of 7'- 4.5" not only marked a lifetime best, but ranks second all-time in BYU history. Pugsley finished second with a mark of 6'-7.5" and Parkinson finished fourth at a height of 6'- 5.5". CSU's Terrance Jackson finished third with an identical mark of 6'-5.5". In the 5,000-meters, Colorado State's Mike Klass scated to a six-second victory of Utah's Teren Jameson. Klass picked up 10 points for the Rams with a time of 14:51.42 and moved CSU just one-half point in front of Wyoming for third place. Jameson ran a 14:57.34, followed in third by BYU's Trevor Pettingill (15:06.55). In the final event of the meet, Wyoming entered the 4x400-meter relay as the team to beat and needed a strong performance to pass CSU in the team standings. The Cowboys and Cougars traded leads for three laps when just meters into the final leg, contact between BYU's Grossarth and Wyoming's Charlemagne caused Grossarth to drop the baton. Wyoming then cruised to a 3:09.48 victory in the event, while BYU dropped to third (3:15.03) behind Air Force's 3:14.68. New Mexico finished Having announced his retirement earlier this season, BYU head coach Willard Hirschi, who has led the Cougars to 11 indoor and nine outdoor league championships was named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year. Hirschi, who has been affiliated with BYU since 1952, will end his 12-year head coaching career following the NCAA Championships in June. BYU's Jim Roberts was named outstanding performer of the competition, while Curtis Pugsley was named MWC Freshman of the Year as well as the top-scoring athlete at the 2000 MWC Outdoor Track & Field Championships with 24 points (1st, decathlon, 2nd high jump, 3rd pole vault). On the women's side, the 1,500-meter race featured the nation's No. 3-ranked Susan Taylor, who picked up the event win for BYU in 4:36.50, followed by teammate Sharolyn Shields in a close second (4:36.80). Three athletes recorded NCAA marks in the 100-meter hurdles, led by ninth-ranked Kirsten Bolm, who set a new personal best and automatic qualifying time of 13.02 in winning the 100-meter hurdles. San Diego State's Felicia Stone (13.32) and New Mexico's Angela Whyte (13.43) picked up provisional times in second and third place, respectively. Conference leader and No. 13-ranked Michele Davis ran an NCAA provisional time of 53.09 to win the 400 meters for UNLV, ahead of Promise Mose, who claimed second for the Aztecs in 54.63. Ayanna Hutchinson made it two in a row for UNLV with a win in the 100-meter dash, where the nation's sixth-ranked runner pulled away from the pack to win in 11.69, with Bolm in second (12.02). Davis and Hutchinson returned to star for the Rebels in the 200-meter dash, where Davis picked up her second title of the day in 23.21, an NCAA provisonal mark, with Hutchinson in second (23.54). BYU's Holly Gibbons and Milena Alver earned trips to the NCAA Championships with their 1-2 finish inthe 400-meter hurdles. Gibbons won the event in 57.56, followed by Alver in 57.73. The times move them into seventh and ninth place national rankings and into second and third, respectively, on the BYU all-time list. Yet another conference favorite came out on top in the 800 meters, where No. 9-ranked Melanie Steere posted an NCAA provisional time in winnning the event, followed by San Diego State's Kylie Edwards (2:07.39) and teammate Susan Taylor (2:09.56). Tara Rohatinsky and Marty Hernandez opened up an early lead in the 5,000-meter race and pulled away from the pack to finish 1-2 in the race for BYU. The pair ran side-by-side for the first 4,500 meters before Rohatinsky, ranked No. 18 in the nation, made a move to the outside down the stretch to edge out seventh-ranked Hernandez (16:45.39). Rohatinsky's winning time of 16:39.55 guarantees her a spot in the NCAA Championships, as altitude adjustment will make her an automatic qualifier. New Mexico's Monique Harris leaped 40'-2" to place first in the triple jump, outdistancing BYU's second-place Kathy Sorenson (39'-9.75"). UNLV rounded out the competition with a 3:40.00-second performance to claim the 4x400 relay title, with New Mexico in second (3:40.67) and San Diego State in third (3:43.19). Following the meet, the Women's Outstanding Performer award went to Robyn Lyons of Wyoming, who won the hammer throw competition by 14 feet, and went on to place second in the discus, sixth in the shot put and eighth in the javelin, scoring 22 team points. BYU's Craig Poole was named Coach of the Year for keeping his team undefeated in outdoor conference competition, while fellow Cougar Kirsten Bolm received top-scorer honors with 28 points, including wins in the long jump and 100-meter hurdles, as well as a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash. After claiming victory in the heptathlon Thursday and placing second in Friday's long jump final, Anna-Lee Walcott of BYU was named Freshman of the Year, an honor Walcott also received at the MWC Indoor meet in February.
Men's Coach of the Year: Willard Hirschi, BYU
Women's Coach of the Year: Craig Poole, BYU
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