(Feb. 13, 2010) - The BYU men's track and field team shine in both Colorado and Washington with its best weekend of the season and last meets before the MWC Championships in two weeks.
"This weekend was everything were hoping for," said BYU head coach Mark Robison. "This was our best meet of the season by far."
Despite competing at the Air Force Invitational with only 16 athletes, the Cougars finished with highest team score at 89 points, right ahead of fellow MWC foes Colorado State and Air Force.
The Cougars' 4x440 team took first place, with Kevin Ahlstrom, Rhyan Atrice, Kevin Biesinger and Bryan Payne combining for the win.
Rob Skidmore, Ahlstrom and Biesinger finished 2-3-6 in the 400-meters while Trevor Heiner, Michael McConkie and Phillip Bettis went 2-3-6 in the high jump.
"Each week we hope to get better and better and wow did we do a lot of that today," Robison said. "We did phenomenal."
Competing in the long jump, five Cougars finished in the top 20, led by Aaron Powell in fourth with a lifetime-best jump of 7.34 meters. Anse Myller DeAraujo and Kyle Mills also set new personal bests, finishing fifth and fourteenth, respectively. Bettis came in at fifteenth and Jonathan Furguson placed seventeenth.
Bettis also finished second in the 60-meter hurdles
In Washington, the distance runners and throwers also set new marks. Daniel Lawson placed first in the shot put with a throw of 18.19 meters, a provisional qualifier and a lifetime best.
Oliver Whaley set his own personal record in the weight throw, going 19.78 meters.
Nathan Ogden and Jon Kotter flew to the top of the MWC standings in the 5,000-meter run, both provisionally qualifying with times of 14:02.21 and 14:09.08, respectively, with Kotter's mark 25 seconds better than the conference's current third place.
Reagan Frey and Alden Bahr showed improved marks in the 3,000-meter run while Josh Adams and Lance Walker competed in the one-mile race.