PROVO -- BYU super sophomore Amy Menlove won the women's pentathlon with 3,866 points, more than 200 points than the next competitor, during the first day of the Cougar Indoor Invitational on Thursday.
Menlove won the event on the strength of her performances in the 60-meter hurdles, the long jump and the 800 meters. The Sandy native won those three events and finished second in the shot put and high jump.
"She surprised us in the pentathlon," BYU women's track coach Craig Poole said. "I didn't know she could finish an 800m and she proved me wrong."
Poole said Menlove's marks in the meet were good enough to qualify her for nationals in both the pentathlon and the long jump.
The freshman trio of Sarah Lacey, Julie Anderson and Nicole Nevitt also competed in the pentathlon. Lacey finished in third with 3,293 points, Andersen fourth with 3,157 points and Nevitt sixth with 3,042 points. Poole also said he was proud of the way the young athletes performed in their first collegiate event.
The BYU men's team also performed well, especially in the throws.
The Arrhenius brothers dominated the 35-pound weight throw and the shot put. Freshman Leif won the weight throw with a toss of 19.35 meters. Leif's older brother, Niklas, finished second in the shot put with a throw of 17.28 meters, just a fraction of a meter better than Leif.
BYU men's track coach Mark Robison said he was extremely pleased with all four of the Cougar throwers.
"They did a great job for the first meet," Robison said. "It was almost unbelievable."
The men's team also faired well in the first events of the heptathlon. Freshman Kevin Keys is in second place overall after winning the shot put. The heptathlon resumes tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Robison said he's very excited to see what happens tomorrow, adding that the team is very young and it's early in the season.
Freshman Lele Fotu finished second in the women's 20-pound weight throw and junior Maret Komorova finished second in the women's shot put.
The meet resumes tomorrow with athletes from Portland State, Utah State and Utah at 10 a.m. with the men's heptathlon followed by the jumps at noon and the track events at 1 p.m.
Full results of the meet can be found at www.byutrack.com