PROVO, Utah – Jaslyn Gardner set a school record in the 60m dash to headline a weekend of personal records and Cougars moving up the all-time board at the BYU Indoor Invite.
“For our first meet of the year, we started out with a strong showing,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “Overall what we saw were great performances across all categories of the team. That’s what you want going into your first meet of the season. Several athletes posted potential marks to qualify them for the national meet.”
Gardner set a new school record in the 60m dash on Saturday with a time of 7.39. Gardner now holds both the indoor 60m and outdoor 100m school records. Mindy Neeley McClurkin held the previous record since 2010 with 7.43.
To kickoff the competition, Sierra Freeland moved up to No. 7 all-time on the BYU record board in the shot put with a career-best toss of 15.28m/50-01.50.
The heptathlon squad had a strong showing this weekend with several event PRs. Brian Matthews took first in the men’s heptathlon with a PR of 5,581 points, the top score currently in the NCAA. Matthews ran a PR in the 60m (7.01), jumped a career-best 2.03m/6-08.00 in the high jump, threw a personal-best mark of 12.87m/42-02.75 and set a PR at 4.60m/15-01.00 in the pole vault.
Caleb Witsken placed second in the heptathlon with 5,183 points. Witsken earned PRs in the shot put (12.77m/41-10.75), high jump (1.82m/5-11.75), 60m hurdles (8.37) and pole vault (5.10m/16-08.75).
Rickey Fantroy Jr. took home the triple jump title after earning a mark of 15.32m/50-03.25 to close out Friday’s competition.
On Saturday in his BYU career debut, freshman Zach McWhorter won the men’s pole vault with a jump of 5.52m/18-1.25 for the No. 4 all-time mark in BYU history. Eyestone noted that there are good things coming his way this season. This mark puts him in a good qualifying position for the NCAA Indoor Championships. For another career-best in the pole vault, Alex Rios jumped 5.27m/17-3.50 to place second.
Clark Brown clocked a career best time of 6.73 in the 60m for the No.10 all-time in BYU history. Several athletes including Colten Yardley, Annelise Hart and Brinn Jensen also earned personal bests. Many Cougars clocked personal bests in the 60m hurdles as well.
In the men’s 300m, Michael Bluth finished first overall with a personal-best, 33.35. Colten Yardley followed in third with a PR of 33.55.
Jacob Heslington clocked 8:15.27 in the men’s 3000m and currently holds the second-fastest time in the NCAA. With this time, Heslington exhibited a potential national-qualifying mark.
Eyestone was impressed with two freshman performances as well. Cierra Tidwell had a strong start to her BYU career after winning the women’s high jump with a mark of 1.76m/5-09.25. Sophie Laswell won the women’s 3000m with a time of 10:02.40.
The Cougars will next travel to compete at the Air Force Invite on Friday, Jan. 17, at Air Force Academy’s Cadet Field House. Live stats and meet information can be found on the BYU track and field schedule page two days before the meet. Full stats from the BYU Indoor Invitational can be found on runnercard.com.