STANFORD, Calif. – Jason Witt ran the top 10,000-meter time in the nation this year, and the second-best time in school history as BYU participated in the Payton Jordan Invitational over the weekend.
With his time of 27:54.25, Witt set the top collegiate mark this year by over 30 seconds. He sits only behind his coach, Ed Eyestone, on the all-time school record board (Eyestone ran a 27:41.05 in 1985). Eyestone pointed out that with Witt's performance, BYU now has three of the top seven all-time collegiate 10,000-meter times.
Jason Witt's 27:54 10K was #2 ever at BYU, #6 ever by an American collegiate, & #1 in the NCAA, and was also the 2016 Olympic Standard
— Ed Eyestone (@EdEyestone) May 3, 2015
Shaquille Walker added to his impressive résumé Saturday, placing fourth in the 800 meters among the nation’s top collegiate and professional runners. Walker’s time of 1:45.98, the second-best of his career, placed him behind just one college runner—Penn State’s Brannon Kidder (1:45.58)—and two professional runners—Boris Berian (1:45.30) and Mark Wieczorek (1:45.89). Walker has now broken the 1:46.00 threshold twice in his sophomore year, and is the only BYU runner to do so.
BYU showed well in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, with James Tracy (8:46.35), Aaron Fletcher (8:48.57) and Steve Flint (8:49.65) finishing fourth, fifth and sixth their section. Their marks are the best three performances in the steeplechase by Cougar runners this season.
At the Idaho-Utah Border Clash, Alyssa Montverde-Dalton won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.30. Her time is the 22nd-best in the nation this year and the fourth-best in school history.
Diamond Thomas took second place in the 100 and 200 meters. In the 200 meters, she moved into 10th-best in school history with a time of 23.92.
BYU competes in two meets next week: the Weber State Twilight Meet in Ogden, Utah on Wednesday and the Oxy Invitational in Los Angeles over the weekend.