PROVO, Utah – The BYU men’s and women’s track and field teams will head to California on Thursday, April 19, to compete in the 54th annual Mt. SAC Relays against some of the top competition in the world.
Professional athletes from countries ranging from Italy to Nigeria will be in attendance alongside the best collegiate competitors from across the NCAA. Runners from schools including Arizona, Arizona State, Georgetown, UCLA, USC and Villanova, along with a number of others, will compete at the meet.
Senior Miles Batty will compete for the second time this outdoor season and will represent the Cougars in the 5000-meters. This marks the first time this calendar year that Batty will compete in a race longer than 3000m.
The men’s team will also have a trio of highly-ranked runners compete in the 800m. Justin Hedin and Ryan Waite, both of whom rank in the top-25 nationally in the event, will compete alongside Shaquille Walker, who ranks 61st in the nation.
Other top athletes that will lead the men’s team include Victor Weirich in the pole vault and Cade Lindahl in the 400m.
On the women’s side, Nachelle Mackie will try to top her season-best time of 2:03.02 in the 800m. Mackie will compete in the Olympic Development section of the race alongside seven professional athletes. She will be the only collegian in the section.
Senior Lacey Bleazard will also compete in the 800m with hopes to top her season-best time of 2:07.78 that she ran at UCLA earlier this year.
The Cougars will also put three competitors, Stephanie Jensen Bills, Kathryn Vidmar and Loren Wynn, in the 10000m race for the first time in 2012.
Allyson Anderson, who currently ranks ninth in the NCAA in the javelin, will be the lone field competitor for the women’s team.
The meet kicks off on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. PT and is scheduled to conclude on Saturday at 7:40 p.m. Live results are available at mtsacrelays.com.