LOS ANGELES — Sprinter Adaobi Tabugbo set personal records in two events as No. 11 BYU women’s track and field competed at USC’s Trojan Invitational at Felix Field and Loker Track Stadium on Saturday.
"Adaobi had a couple of great races in the 100 and 200-meters, as well as a solid hurdle race," said BYU sprints coach Kyle Grossarth.
Tabugbo began the meet taking third in the 100-meter hurdles with a personal-best of 13.44. This keeps the junior from Laurel, Maryland at No. 6 all-time for the Cougars but brings her within 0.06 seconds of surpassing Amy Menlove Otis for fifth-best at BYU.
Tabugbo then shaved nearly 0.2 seconds off her 100-meter time as she clocked 11.77 to take 10th. This put Tabugbo just seven-tenths of a second off arriving on the program’s 100-meter top-10 board. Keesha Miller’s 11.71 (2018) retains that spot for now.
To conclude the meet, Tabugbo combined with Marianne Barber and Dolita Shaw to finish eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively, in the 200-meters. Tabugbo’s eighth-place finish came as she clocked 24.21. Barber was a hair behind at 24.22 while Shaw rounded out the top-10 finishers at 24.51.
In each of these three events, Tabugbo and her teammates faced five sprinters ranked in the top-25 nationally. These included USC’s Christine Mallard (No. 8, 200) and Caisja Chandler (No. 9, 100), along with 10th-ranked hurdler Jaiya Covington of Texas A&M.
BYU’s relay squads took two third-place finishes at Loker Stadium on Saturday.
Emma Johnson and Brilee Pontius teamed-up with Barber and Shaw to come within 0.11 seconds of a 4x100-meter school record. The squad clocked 44.74 in Los Angeles, beating San Diego State (44.77) and Long Beach State (45.99) across the finish while dropping to third behind No.6 Texas A&M (43.90) and No. 15 USC (43.41).
"That time should get us to regionals," Grossarth said.
The 4x400-meter relay saw the Cougars take third at 3:50.86.
Pontius and Oblad also saw action in the 400-meters. The pair finished fifth and ninth, respectively, with Pontius clocking 55.50 to hold-off San Diego State’s Sydney Bentley and USC’s Gigi Maccagnini.
BYU’s lone field event of the day saw freshmen Brekell Gammell and Mary DeGraffenried compete in the javelin throw. Gammell finished fourth at 44.28-meters/145-3 with DeGraffenried in fifth after a toss of 42.37m/139-0.
"We were excited to come to some warm weather and compete against good competition," Grossarth said. "Each week we compete we are just looking to get better as we build toward the end of the season, and today people got better."
The Cougars are back on the track at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California April 13-15.