COLORADO SPRINGS -- The BYU men's and women's track team combined to advance 13 individuals in eight events and win six more events during Friday's competition at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships.
With one day of competition to go, the men trail only Colorado State in points 76.5 to 50.5 with six events scored. The women lead the competition by 13 points over Colorado State, 78-65.
"We did what we came to do today," BYU women's track coach Craig Poole said. "We got everybody we needed to get in scoring situations."
When the Cougars got the chance, they scored, winning the men's high jump, both long jumps, both distance medley relays and the women's 5,000 meters and getting many other in the top-6 spots to garner points.
Most of Friday's running events were preliminary heats with the finals set for Saturday. Athletes from the women's team advancing to the finals include: Amy Menlove in the 60 meter dash and 60-meter hurdles; Challis Firl, 400 meters; Heidi Magill, Laura Taylor, Julie Cameron and Michelle Lindsay in the 800 meters.
BYU men's athletes advancing to Saturday's finals include: Nate Soelberg, 60 meter dash; Jake Garlick, Bryan Payne and Stig Robertson in the 60-meter hurdles; David Chesser, who had the fastest time in the 400 meter prelims; Bryan Payne and Jake Garlick in the 400 meters; Jason Dorais, Lars Kjerengtroen and Kansas Whitear in the 800 meters; and Garlick and Chesser both advanced in the 200 meters.
"We had some great performances, especially by the hurdlers," men's track coach Mark Robison said.
Sophomore Amy Menlove continued her domination by winning the long jump competition and advancing to the finals in the 60 meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles.
Menlove won her second event of the championships with a leap of 20 feet 5.75 inches in the long jump. The rest of the Cougars long jump squad also faired well with juniors Liis Berendsen and Kamila Rywelska placing sixth and seventh.
Julie Andersen and senior Lindsey Sommer finished ninth in the long jump competition
Adding to the Cougar victories on Friday was sophomore David Pendergrass. Pendergrass won the competition in a duel with Jacob Benson of Colorado State.
Both competitors missed their first two attempts at 7 feet and a quarter inch. Benson knocked the bar off on his third and final attempt. Then Pendergrass, with the crowd clapping rhythmically at his urging, cleared the bar and gained his first MWC title.
Ann Marie Thomas, Challis Firl, Ann Heiner and Allison Passey won the distance medley relay in 12:17.09, just ahead of Colorado State. The men's distance medley relay team also won with a time of 10:03.22.
The men's time was a MWC Indoor Championship record, breaking last year's Cougar distance medley relay team's time. The relay team included All-American Nathan Robison, Dustin Bybee, Josh McAdams and Stig Robertson. Robison said he couldn't believe the relay team ran as fast as they did.
"They really surprised me," Robison said. "Stig especially did well in coming back after the 400m."
In the men's 5,000 meters, Josh Rohatinsky finished third at 15:05.23 after leading the race until the final lap. Coach Robison said Rohatinsky overextended himself, but did sensational just holding on.Teammate Chandler Goodwin placed sixth with a 15:11.11 and was followed by senior Chad Durham in ninth.
In a bizarre turn of events, senior All-American Laura Turner won the women's 5,000 meter run with teammates Chelsea Smith and Lisa Antonelli-Pratt finishing second and sixth.
Race officials stopped Turner and several others one lap short of 5,000 meters, while the rest of the competitors including Smith, continued on. Track officials decided to award the title to Turner, but made her and the other competitors' times unofficial.
Rodrigo Mendes continued his string of victories in the high jump, winning a MWC Indoor title with a season-best jump of 24 feet 2.5 inches. Mendes is also the reigning MWC Indoor triple jump champion. He hopes to retain that title when he competes tomorrow.
Teammate Matt Anderson also set a season-best with a jump of 22 feet 1.5 inches, placing him 7th overall in the long jump.
Provo native Leli Fotu finished fifth in the women's 20-pound weight throw with a toss of 57 feet 3.75 inches, just short of her personal best. On the men's side, Leif Arrhenius finished fifth in the 35-pound weight throw, while his brother, Niklas, finished ninth.
The heptathletes continued their grueling two-day competition with the 1,000 meter run, pole vault and 60-meter hurdles.
Chris Weirich finished the competition with 4,880 points, including 738 points from the 1,000 meter run, to land him in sixth place overall. Junior Joe Dredge added 628 points in the 1,000 meters to finish with 4,111 points and a 10th place finish.
Weirich won the pole vault portion of the competition by clearing 15 feet 1 inch to give him 790 points and keep him in point contention. Dredge also did well in the pole vault, finishing fourth in the event clearing 13 feet 9.25 inches.
Weirich placed third in the 60-meter hurdles with a season-best 8.61, while Dredge finished 10th.
The competition will be fierce tomorrow as the Rams and Cougars will fight it out tomorrow for both the men's and women's championships.
The competition resumes tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. with the men's triple jump, followed by the track finals. The meet is set to conclude at 4 p.m.