FT. COLLINS -- The BYU men's track and field team took a commanding 39.5-point lead with one day of competition left at the Mountain West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, while the women's team ended the day in second, trailing only Colorado State.
The Cougars won eight individual titles on Friday and advanced 20 more participants to tomorrow's finals.
Everything went perfectly for the men's team, as they qualified nearly everyone they entered.
"If I could have said beforehand 'This is how I want it to be'," BYU men's track coach Mark Robison said. "It nearly turned out to be that way today."
He said the Cougars had a fabulous day and he doesn't expect things to be any different tomorrow.
The women's team, meanwhile, has an uphill battle tomorrow with the Rams.
"We had some real good efforts today. We learned some lessons," BYU women's track coach Craig Poole said. "We'll need to step it up tomorrow and go to work."
The distance squad carried the women's team, earning the large majority of the team's points.
"We overachieved today," distance coach Patrick Shane said. "Our girls will move up very high on the regional lists with the altitude adjustments after this."
Chelsea Smith and Lisa Frischknecht helped close the gap on Colorado State by taking the top spots in the day's last event, the 10,000 meters. The two combined for 18 points to close the gap on the Rams to 15 points by the end of Friday's competition.
Smith won the event in 37:45.29, while Frischknecht finished second at 37:49.90.
Josh Rohatinsky won the men's 10,000 meters with a time of 31:18.90, while senior Chad Durham finished fourth. Rohatinsky and Durham combined to earn 14 points to extend the men's lead.
After taking a couple of weeks off from running events, All-American Amy Menlove successfully defended her conference title in the long jump. The sophomore from Sandy set a new MWC Outdoor Championship record with a leap of 21 feet 4.75 inches. She set the conference all-time indoor long jump record in February.
The mark is also third all-time in conference history and fourth all-time in school history.
Sophomore Kamila Rywelska finished seventh in the event to add two points to the Cougar total.
The Arrhenius brothers combined to increase the men's lead by finishing one-two in the discus throw to earn 18 more points for the team.
Sophomore Nik won with a conference-best throw of 188 feet 6 inches, bettering his season-best mark by more than five feet. He won the discus event last year as well. Younger brother Leif tossed the discus 182 feet 5 inches to finish second.
Jump specialist Rodrigo Mendes finished second in the long jump competition by leaping 23 feet 10.25 inches, trailing Jacob Benson of Colorado State by 2.5 inches. Mendes earned eight points for the Cougars.
All-American Lindsey Metcalf won the high jump in a tiebreaker with Christine Spence of UNLV. Both leapt 5 feet 11.25 inches. Metcalf earned 10 points with the victory, while sophomore Kristin Hirst placed fifth, clearing 5 feet 7 inches, adding four more points.
Trent Powell won the pole vault competition clearing 17 feet 9.25 inches. Robbie Pratt also cleared 17 feet 9.25 inches, but finished second due to an earlier miss. The Cougars gained 18 points in the event to further their lead over the Rams.
The women's 3,000-meter steeplechase squad swept the top-3 spots in the event and scored 21 points. Senior Rena Chesser won the event with a team-best time of 10:42.81 followed quickly by All-American Michaela Mannova at 10:43.95.
Junior Sarah Ingebretsen finished third at 11:04.42, while teammate Kristy Barrus finished sixth. All had previously qualified for regional competition.
The men's steeplechase squad was equally impressive stealing three of the top-4 spots, while scoring 21 points.
Junior Josh McAdams won the event in 9:02.93 with Chandler Goodwin in third and defending conference champion Matt Adams in fourth.
David Pendergrass won the men's high jump after clearing 6 feet 10.75 inches, with fewer misses along the way than teammate Bryce Bergen, who finished second, also clearing 6 feet 10.75 inches. The two combined for 18 team points in the event.
Freshman thrower Leif Arrhenius added three more points to the Cougar total by finishing sixth in the hammer throw with a heave of 189 feet.
Advancing in the men's 110-meter hurdles to Saturday's finals were Ben Gardner and Jacob Garlick, with the top two times in the preliminaries. Menlove and Lindsey Sommer both advanced in the 100-meter hurdles.
In the 400-meter hurdles, the Gardner, Garlick, Kansas Whitear and Nate Rencher advanced with the top four times in that order in the preliminaries. On the women's side, Taylor Law advanced to the finals.
Sprinters advancing to the finals on Saturday include: David Chesser (200 meters, 400 meters), Kevin Biesinger (400 meters), Challis Firl (400 meters) and Nate Soelberg (100 meters) with a season-best run of 10.57.
The Cougars entered six athletes into the 800 meters and advanced all six into the finals. Advancing were Michelle Lindsay, Aneta Lemeisz, Heidi Magill, Jason Dorais, Lars Kjerengtroen and Nathan Robison.
Competition resumes tomorrow with the women's javelin at 10:30 a.m. The finals of the track events begin at 11:30 a.m. with the 4x100 relay.
For complete results from today's action please see www.themwc.com.
Men -- Team Rankings -- 8 Events Scored
1. BYU 112
2. Colorado St. 72.5
3. Air Force 53
4. New Mexico 33.5
5. Wyoming 30
6. Utah 8
Women -- Team Rankings -- 7 Events Scored
1. Colorado St. 94
2. BYU 79
3. Utah 34
4. San Diego St. 18
5. UNLV 14
6. Air Force 12
7. New Mexico 10