SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Several BYU athletes achieved personal best records at the 39th Annual Aztec Invitational this weekend in San Diego, California.

"For the people we had at the meet I think we did pretty well," BYU assistant coach Mark Robison said. "There were quite a few personal bests set so that was a good thing. I think they did a great job overall." 

The athletes had strong performances in the field events including Zachary Stetler who came in first place in the men’s shot put with a mark of 17.98 meters (58’ 11.75”). Freshman Seth Knowlton came in at No. 10 with a mark of 14.37m (47’ 0.5”).

Four BYU women athletes competed in the shot put. Sierra Freeland came in first with a personal best mark of 14.68 meters (48’ 1.75”). Kassie Nagel threw a mark of 14.20 meters (46’ 0.7”) to come in second place overall. Emily Spendlove came in at No. 7 and Leah Thompson finished at No. 13.

The men also showed strong numbers in the discus with four athletes placing in the top-10. Stetler finished second with a mark of 50.83 meters (166’ 9”). Dennis Christensen took third place, Jacob Foutz took fourth and Knowlton took eighth. 

The women performed strong marks in the high jump with four women placing. Ellyana Long placed second overall, Lyndsay Yetter and Marissa Appiah tied for third and Rebecca Buechter came in ninth.

While many of the athletes who traveled to San Diego competed in field events, there were a handful of athletes that competed in running events.

Heidi Fuhriman came in second place overall in the women’s 800-meter run and Kamryn Hart came in close behind, finishing fifth.

True freshman Yetter competed in the women’s 200-meter run and 100-meter hurdles. Yetter took 12th in the 100-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 14.56. Appiah came in behind her at 14th and Halley Folsom finished in 20th.

For a full list of results, click here. 

Up next for the team is the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, March 29, and Thursday, March 30. 

PROVO, Utah – As the track and field outdoor season continues, the BYU field event athletes will be traveling to San Diego State to compete in the Aztec Invitational on Friday and Saturday, March 24-25.

Coach Mark Robison commented on the team’s goals going into the meet this weekend and how he hopes the field event athletes perform.

“Our goal each week is to improve,” Robison said. “Transitioning from indoors to outdoors is very important because competing indoors always offers ideal, perfect conditions. However, with outdoors, you have weather conditions that you can’t control. It could be the sun, wind, rain or anything else that we haven’t had to control yet. So, it is just transitioning well and improving that we are focused on, but ultimately each week our goal is to get marks that will get us into regionals. So, we hope that is the case this week.”

All field event athletes will be signed up for both the open meet on Friday and the invite meet on Saturday. It gives the athletes the flexibility to choose which day to compete if there are unfavorable conditions.

The distance group, relay group, hurdlers and the majority of middle- and short-distance runners will sit out from competition and train through the weekend as they prepare for the upcoming Texas Relays and Stanford Invitational which will both take place the week of March 29.  

Follow the official BYU Track and Field/Cross Country Twitter account for updates on this weekend’s meet, @BYUTFXC, or click here for more information about the meet entries.