POCATELLO, Idaho (Jan. 12, 2002) The BYU men's and women's track teams took home victories in eight events at the Snake River Open as the teams continue to develop and progress in the early part of the season.

The men had a strong team outing as the team took a larger contingency of their athletes to compete in Pocatello. The men brought home five event titles at the meet, including a victory in the 4x400 relay.

Four individuals won events for the Cougars. David Pendergrass had his second strong outing of the season. Last week, Pendergrass had a personal best height in the high jump, this week he moved to the triple jump where he won with a leap of 46-01.75 (14.06)

Matt Nielsen won the 200-meter dash title with a time of 21.59, the fastest time of the year for the Cougars. Kish Beverly finished third in the 200 meter and brought home another BYU win in the 400 meter with a time of 47.98. The other Cougar to win an event was Matt Holcomb, who had a mark of 56-01.50 (17.10) in the weight throw to round out the BYU winners on the men's side.

The women were led by freshman Kassi Andersen, who finished the mile in a time of 5:09.30 to beat out teammates Anika Smith (5:10.17) and Breanne Sandberg (5:11.48), giving the Cougars a one-two-three finish in the event. Andersen also finished fourth in the 3000-meter run for BYU.

"We had some good marks and we have made satisfactory progress over the past week," BYU women's head coach Craig Poole said. "We are very pleased with where we are and with the progression we have made at this point in the season."

Senior Nikki Hughes had another good day on the track, winning the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 8.20. Lindsey Steele cleared a height of 5-09.00 (2.36) to just beat teammate Candace Clifford, who jumped 5-07.00 (1.70), for the final Cougar victory of the meet in the high jump.

PROVO -- In the second week of competition, BYU will travel to Pocatello, Idaho to compete against schools from Utah and Idaho in the Snake River Open.

The Cougars will be taking a much larger contingent of athletes to the meet than they did to last week's season opener at Weber State.

"We are excited for this weekend becausewe will basically be at full strength," BYU men's head coach Mark Robison said. "After this weekend we will have a better idea of where we are at and what we need to do to improve."

The teams will be taking larger numbers to Pocatello but will still be using the meet to look at where the team is at, in terms of development, in the early stages of the season.

"We are trying to give our athletes a broad base of experience," BYU women's head coach Craig Poole said. "We will be running stronger this week but we still won't have the specializations determined."

Other teams that will be competing at the Snake River Open include Southern Utah, Utah State, Boise State, Utah, Weber State and Idaho State, Ricks College, Northwest Nazarene and Treasure Valley Community College.

The meet is scheduled to begin Sat., Sept. 19 at 10 a.m. and events will be held throughout the day.

For more information and to get post-meet results, go to www.isu.edu/athletic