PROVO -- The third weekend of the BYU track and field season will get under way on Friday as the men’s and women’s teams head to Albuquerque to compete at the New Mexico Cherry and Silver Invitational.
"We'll have great competition and a great facility," men's head coach Mark Robison said. "This week will give us a pretty good idea of where we are at and who we are going to be."
The Cougars will face their best competition yet with several quality teams in attendance. Pac-10 schools Stanford, Cal and Arizona will participate along with conference opponents Colorado State and New Mexico plus some smaller schools.
Senior Porshe Giddings will lead the women’s team after winning her first Mountain West Conference Athlete of the Week award following the Snake River Open. Giddings currently holds the top MWC time in the 200m and has the second-fastest 60m time in the conference.
The men’s team has seen solid performances out of the distance runners this season, with junior Miles Batty still holding the fastest mile time in the country at 3:59.27. After a week off for most of the distance team, athletes will be looking to improve on early success.
Field events have been going well and will continue to be a strength for the Cougars. Freshman Zachary Stetler recently posted a personal-best 16.58m (54-04.75) in the shot put last week at the Snake River Open.
After opening the season at home on a 322-meter track and then competing at Idaho State on a unique wooden track, this marks the first meet of the season for the Cougars that will feature a traditional, 200-meter track.
The meet is slated to begin on Friday evening with the men’s and women’s long jump at 5:00 p.m. MDT. Action will begin on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. with the women’s pole vault and is scheduled to conclude at 3:40 p.m. with the women’s 4x400m relay. Complete results will be available at golobos.com.