LOS ANGELES – All-American Brenna Porter earned the No. 8 outdoor 400m time in BYU history as No. 3/12 BYU track and field wrapped up the regular season at the Oxy Invitational on Saturday.
“Brenna had a great race in the 400m to earn another spot on the BYU record board,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “It was a good final meet to get a few more hopeful qualifiers heading into the regional meet. It’s now just the waiting game to find out who made it, but I think we positioned ourselves nicely.”
Two days after breaking the school record in the 400m hurdles at the BYU Invitational, Porter ran the eighth-fastest outdoor 400m in BYU history. The senior clocked 54.50 in the final meet of the regular season to move up the school record board. Porter is No. 2 in the indoor 400m with a career-best 53.90.
Ellie Heiden-Quackenbush and Karina Haymore also ran the women’s 400m and won their respective heats. Heiden-Quackenbush finished with a time of 54.84 while Haymore ran a career-best 55.20.
Jesus Serrano and Scott Mecham both earned potential qualifying times for the NCAA West Prelims in the 400m hurdles. Serrano ran a personal-best 52.20 while Mecham earned a season-best 52.25. The hurdlers need to be amongst the top 48 400m hurdlers in the West to qualify. The NCAA will release qualifiers for each region next week.
Anna Camp-Bennett improved her position to qualify for regionals in the women’s 800m with a personal record of 2:04.20. The junior was already a likely qualifier after heading into the weekend ranked No. 9 in the West with a time of 2:04.86.
In the men’s 3000m steeplechase, Adam Wood and Cade Perry finished with times that push them into position to potentially qualify for the NCAA West Prelims. Wood ran the race in 8:59.46 to earn a time under nine minutes for the first time in his career while Perry finished with a season-best 9:02.88.
The men’s 5000m featured three Cougars earning possible regional-qualifying times. Danny Carney and Connor Weaver finished with times of 14:00.04 and 14:00.06, respectively. Both are likely qualifiers based off of times that advanced to regional meets the past six years. Brandon Garnica ran a career-best 14:05.97 and is on the bubble for qualifying for the NCAA West Prelims.
The men’s 4x100m relay team won the event with a time of 40.46. The team consisted of Andrew Stuart, Michael Bluth, Abram Schaap and Derek Sorensen. In the women’s 100m, Jaslyn Gardner clocked 11.75 to place third overall.
Full results from the Oxy Invitational can be found here.
The final list of qualifiers for the NCAA West Prelims will be announced by Wednesday, May 15. Qualifiers from the BYU track and field team will compete at the NCAA West Prelims in Sacramento, California, May 23-25. Information for the regional meet can be found on ncaa.com.