PROVO, Utah – The Cougars hit the road again this weekend as they compete in Seattle at the Washington Invitational on Jan. 29-30.
For the first time this season, the entire array of BYU distance runners will be on display over the weekend. BYU coach Ed Eyestone says he’s eager to see what they can accomplish.
“This is going to be a debut for our long distance runners,” Eyestone said. “We saw some good things out of our middle distance runners a couple of weeks ago at Texas A&M. Now we’ll have a chance to take both our middle and long distance runners, along with a few sprinters and throwers to see what we can do.”
Eyestone says 2015 All-American Shaquille Walker will be among those making their season debut for the Cougars.
“On the men’s side, Shaquille is going to be running in his first real race of the indoor season. He’s ready to roll,” Eyestone said. “He got married over Christmas break, so he’s coming off his honeymoon. We’ve waited a little bit for him to get sharp. We’re hoping that he will run what will be an NCAA qualifying time. I think if he runs under 1:48 we will be happy with that. I know his sights are set a little higher than that, but we’re looking for a good season-opening performance from him. He’s been looking very good in training, so I’m optimistic he will open with a good 800m race.”
Other distance runners Eyestone has high hopes for this weekend include freshmen Connor Ross and Rory Linkletter, as well as junior Jonathan Harper.
“Connor is also going to be running the 800m race,” Eyestone said. “He’s a true freshman, so it’s kind of fun to see what he will do. His training has been going extremely well lately. I think he can run under 1:50 for the first time and maybe even lower than that. He can be a dark horse.”
“We’re hoping that Rory will be able to continue his winning ways and bring down his PR in the 3000m,” Eyestone said.
“Jonathan is another solid runner for us who should be right there with Rory,” he said.
Click here to access live results from the Washington Invitational, or visit the BYU men’s track and field schedule page.