PROVO -- The Cougar men's 2006 track and field season was filled with success that included two championships titles, eight All-Americans and one national champion to top off the season.
MWC Indoor Championships - Albuquerque, N.M.
The Cougar men started out strong at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships and went nowhere but up in the three days of competition. The first medal went to Meelis Kosk who took second in the heptathlon. Cougars made a pathway to the medal stand that no one could follow after that. David Pendergrass received the MWC High Point Award for his performance, winning the high jump and coming back the next day to win the triple jump. The Cougars took not only the top spot, but the two after that in the high jump with teammates Bryce Bergen and Trevor Heiner taking second and third.
Pole vault hero Robbie Pratt defended his indoor title in the event, vaulting 18 feet 4.5 inches to win the competition and earn the Most Outstanding Performance Award. Matt Anderson and Boian Marinov went 1-2 in the long jump and each added points in the triple jump as well. BYU took four of the top six positions in the 60-meter hurdles, led by Jacob Garlick in second and Ben Gardner in third. In the 200 meters it was Paul Smith and Gardner in third and fourth. Chris Carter's meet-record time of 47.26 took him to a second-place finish in the 400 meters.
Josh McAdams and Kyle Perry took the first and second spots in the men's mile. Perry returned two hours later to finish third in the 3,000 meters. In 800-meter competition, it was Jacob Gustafsson in second and Jason Dorais seconds behind him in third. Chandler Goodwin finished third in the 5,000 meters. The distance medley relay team of Gustafsson, Dorais, McAdams and Nate Rencher ran to a first-place finish. The team broke the meet record, finishing in a time of 10:00.73. The mile relay team topped off the championships in second. The final tally was 206 points for the men, 63 points ahead of second-place Colorado State and Coach Mark Robison received the Indoor MWC Coach of the Year award.
NCAA Indoor Championships - Fayetteville, Ark.
Cougar blue shown through with a top-15 finish at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The men competed in just three events but managed 16 points with two seconds and one 12th-place finish. The men's distance medley relay fought their way to a second-place finish, less than a second behind meet-champions Arkansas. Gustafsson, Dorais, McAdams and Gardner each put in top performances to earn their time of 9:37.92.
Pratt also put up eight points for the team with his second-place finish at the championships. Going into the weekend, Pratt was ranked a quarter inch behind Oregon's Thomas Skipper. The pair pushed each other to greater heights and each cleared a final height of 18 feet 6.5 inches, an NCAA personal best for Pratt. Skipper cleared the height in less attempts than Pratt, earning himself the national title. Pendergrass had his time to shine in the high jump, finishing 12th with a height of 6 feet 11.75 inches.
MWC Outdoor Championships - Provo, Utah
The Cougar men lived up to their long-upheld reputation by winning their seventh-consecutive MWC Outdoor Championships. The team finished with 248 points, 70 more than second place Colorado State, and earned one relay and eight individual titles. Carter was named MWC Freshman of the Year and Coach Robison received the Men's Coach of the Year honors.
A group of freshmen dominated the opposition on many levels, led by Carter who scored a total of 14.5 points for the men, finishing first in the 400-meter hurdles (with a meet record of 49.67), seventh in 110-meter hurdles and anchoring the men's 4x400-meter relay that broke the conference record. Perry came from behind to win the 1,500 meters with a time of 3:46.81. He later added an eighth-place finish in the 800 meters. Chris Reno and Blaine Baker took first and third, respectively, in the javelin. Reno's throw of 222 feet 3 inches was a meet record. Heiner had a second-place finish in the high jump. Whitney Neves led the pole vaulters, winning the event with a jump of 17 feet 4 inches. Bob Low followed Neves with a third-place finish in the event.
The freshmen weren't the only teammates that stood out among the competition at the Championships. McAdams won his second title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, then returned the next day to take second in the 1,500 meters. Goodwin backed him up in the steeplechase with a second-place finish and a time of 9:14.20.
Pendergrass once again jumped his way to the top of the high jump medal's stand. Pendergrass jumped 7 feet 1/2 inch for his third outdoor conference win in the event. He also finished strong in the triple jump, taking second with a jump of 49 feet 10 inches. All-American Niklas Arrhenius made several appearances in the championships. Most notable was a win in the discus with a throw of 189 feet 7 inches and a third-place finish in the shot put.
The men closed the meet with a record-setting win in the 1,600-meter relay. Rencher, Gardner, Smith and Carter teamed to record a time of 3:06.40; a MWC Championship meet record and the second-best 1,600-meter run in school history.
NCAA West Region Championships - Provo, Utah
The Cougars improved upon a fifth-place finish at the 2005 West Region Championships to finish second, their best finish in region history. Nine men automatically qualified for nationals at the NCAA West Region Championships. McAdams and Pratt came away from the Championships with titles.
Pratt pulled off a big victory in the pole vault. He cleared the bar at 18 feet 4.75 inches on his final attempt for the win. Neves finished sixth in the event with a height of 17 feet 1 inch. Arrhenius recorded a mark of 195 feet 11 inches in the discus to finish second behind Arizona senior Sean Shields. Reno turned in a distance of 218 feet, 9 inches to finish fourth overall.
In the 1,500 meters, Perry took second in a time of 3:52.61, while Gustafsson finished seventh in a time of 3:56.86. Freshman Miles Batty finished eighth, while sophomore Dustin Bybee finished 11th in the event. Pendergrass tied for second place in the high jump, clearing 6 feet 11 inches. Heiner also earned an automatic bid to the National Championship meet in the high jump with a clearance of 6 feet 11 inches.
Carter led a BYU trio in the 400-meter hurdles, finishing second with a time of 50.28. Rencher finished sixth with a time of 51.92, and Garlick finished seventh for the Cougars with a time of 52.20. Smith finished sixth in the 200 meters with a time of 20.82, his second-fastest time in the event this season.
The BYU men moved into second place in the team standings after collecting 14 points in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. McAdams won the event with a time of 8:50.12 while Goodwin finished in fifth place with a time of 9:04.99 and earned an automatic trip to the National Championship meet in Sacramento.
NCAA Outdoor Championships - Sacramento, Calif.
Fourteen BYU men joined the nation's elite at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Five Cougar competitors came away as All-Americans.
McAdams earned the most sought-after title available--that of National Champion. In a personal-best time of 8:34.10, McAdams crossed the line more than a second ahead of the competition in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He is the first distance National Champion from BYU since his coach, Ed Eyestone, won the 5,000-meter title in 1985.
Pratt, the 2005 Outdoor National Champion, finished second in the pole vault competition with a height of 18 feet 1/2 inch. Carter, a true freshman from Ogden, Utah, finished third in the 400-meter hurdles with a lifetime best of 49.19 to earn his All-America nod. The time is the second-best in BYU history behind Ralph Mann's world-record time of 48.74 set in 1970. Pendergrass took seventh in the high jump and Perry finished 12th in the 1,500 meters, both earning their first All-America honors.
An additional seven athletes and one relay team qualified for the championships and held up against the strongest collegiate competition in the country. Three freshmen competed on the field: Heiner in the high jump, Neves in the pole vault and Reno in the javelin. Arrhenius, a junior, finished 13th in the discus preliminaries, just missing the finals. Goodwin and Bybee competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 1,500 meters, respectively. Smith ran 21.93 in the prelims of the 200 meters. The 400-meter relay team of Rencher, Smith, Gardner and Carter finished behind the qualifying time.
All-Americans
Jason Dorais (Indoor DMR --2nd)
Ben Gardner (Indoor DMR -- 2nd)
Jacob Gustafsson (Indoor DMR -- 2nd)
Josh McAdams (Indoor DMR -- 2nd, Outdoor 3,000m Steeplechase -- 1st)
Robbie Pratt (Indoor pole vault -- 2nd, Outdoor pole vault -- 2nd)
Chris Carter (Outdoor 400m Hurdles -- 3rd)
Kyle Perry (Outdoor 1,500 Meters -- 12th)
David Pendergrass (Outdoor High Jump -- 7th)
MWC Titles
Matthew Anderson (Indoor long jump)
Josh McAdams (Indoor mile)
David Pendergrass (Indoor high jump, triple jump; Outdoor High Jump)
Robison Pratt (Indoor pole vault)
Kyle Perry (Outdoor 1,500 Meters)
Josh McAdams (Outdoor 3,000m Steeplechase)
Nate Rencher (Outdoor 110m Hurdles)
Chris Carter (Outdoor 400m Hurdles)
Whitney Neves (Outdoor Pole Vault)
Niklas Arrhenius (Outdoor Discus)
Chris Reno (Outdoor Javelin)
Relays:
Jason Dorais, Jacob Gustafsson, Josh McAdams and Nate Rencher (Indoor DMR)
Nate Rencher, Paul Smih, Benjamin Gardner, Chris Carter (Outdoor 4x400 Relay)