FAYETTEVILLE -- The BYU track teams made a strong showing during the first day of competition at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, thanks in part to a balanced scoring effort from the women's team.
After scoring 11 points in last year's indoor championships, the women's team scored 11 points during the first day of competition. The Cougars find themselves tied for fifth place, trailing only Tennessee, Texas, Miami and Stanford.
"We did what we needed to do today," BYU women's track coach Craig Poole said. "We've really tried to be team-centered this year and our score shows that."
Sophomore Amy Menlove led the Cougars with six points in the long jump and All-American Lindsay Metcalf added four points in the high jump, while distance star Laura Turner added one more point in the 5,000 meters.
"The girls really did a great job today," Poole said. "We plan to be competitive in our events tomorrow."
The men's team also did well, scoring in two events and advancing an athlete in another. The men finished with 4.5 points on the day.
The men's team managed to gain 3.50 points from the pole vaulting pair of Robison Pratt and Trent Powell. Pratt cleared 17 feet 8.5 inches on his first attempt at the height before missing three times at 18 feet .50 inches. He finished sixth overall in the event to earn three team points.
Powell cleared 17 feet 4.5 inches on his way to finishing in a tie for eighth place. He split the eighth-place point with Nebraska's Gable Baldwin.
Junior Josh McAdams ran a strong anchor leg of the men's distance medley relay to hold on to eighth place and add more point to the men's total. Lars Kjerengtroen, Jason Dorais and David Chesser all chipped in to place in the event.
Senior All-American Laura Turner added the women's final point of the day by finishing eighth in the 5,000 meters. Turner crossed the finish line in a season-best 16:10.85.
The Utah Valley duo of Bryan Lindsay and Nathan Robison ran the preliminaries of the mile run. Orem native Lindsay qualified with a strong push during the finals two laps of the race. He finished with a time of 4:04.04, seventh overall.
Provo product Robison ran a 4:07.27 mile, placing 12th overall and missing the chance to compete in the finals tomorrow. The finals of the men's mile are tomorrow evening.
Freshman Heidi Magill advanced to the finals of the women's mile after finishing third in her heat. Her time of 4:45.14 was fourth overall in the preliminaries. The finals of the mile run are tomorrow just before the men's mile.
Menlove put the women's team within one point of last year's total at the NCAAs with a third place finish in the long jump. Menlove cleared 20 feet 3.25 inches on her first attempt. The mark was just three-quarters of an inch short of her personal best.
Metcalfe tied a season-best jump of 6 feet after clearing the height on her first attempt. She was unable to clear 6 feet 1.25 inches in her next three attempts. By managing to clear 6 feet and placing fifth, Metcalf garnered another All-American citation and four points for the women's team.
The first Cougar of the day to compete was freshman thrower Leif Arrhenius. The Orem native fouled three times, missing out on a chance to place and earn points for the team.
The Arkansas Razorbacks' Wallace Spearman ran the 200 meters in a record 20.10. The mark was a new American and NCAA record. The mark is also the third fastest time ever in the world. Former Cougar great Frank Fredericks is the only person to run the indoor 200 meters faster, including one sub-20 second mark.
The competition concludes tomorrow at 8:20 p.m. with the men's 4x400 relay. A recap of BYU results from the meet will be available on www.byucougars.com shortly after the conclusion of the competition.