WALNUT, Calif. -- Five BYU athletes finished with regional qualifying marks in the men’s 5,000-meter run at the Mt. Sac Relays on Friday night, with two Cougars submitting some of the best times in school history.

“We had a very good day from all five guys in the 5,000,” BYU distance coach Ed Eyestone said. “They all had regional qualifying times and they finished under that 14-minute mark, which was a big goal for us. It really shows the nice depth we have, which is one of the reasons we were a strong cross country team last fall.”

Jared Ward took 13th overall in the Elite division of the men’s 5,000-meter run with a time of 13:37.03. The time was good enough to move Ward into fifth all-time in the BYU record books. Tylor Thatcher also ran in the event, taking 22nd overall with a time of 13:51.11 and moving into eighth on BYU’s all-time list.

“It’s definitely takes the pressure off to get the regional qualifying times out of the way early in the season,” Ward said. “I’ll be able to treat the upcoming meets a bit like workouts, work on speed and just try to get good races in without peaking as much.”

In the Olympic Development division of the 5,000 meters, Tommy Gruenewald took 10th place with a time of 13:54.26. Steve Flint and Jason Witt took 20th and 21st overall, respectively, with times of 13:57.93 and 13:58.20.

The Cougars also had two athletes compete in field events on Friday. Braydon Bringhurst took third place in Group B of the Open division pole vault competition, clearing 16-10.75. Victor Weirich failed to register a height, however, knocking the standard off on the third attempt at his opening height.

The Cougars will compete in three events on Saturday at the Utah State Mark Faldmo Invite in Logan, Utah.

PROVO, Utah -- The BYU men’s track and field team heads to Walnut, Calif. this weekend to compete in the Puma Mt. Sac Relays.

“Mt. Sac is the ultimate meet if you’re a distance runner,” BYU head coach Mark Robison said. “There’s phenomenal competition and most of the regional qualifying times are going to come from Mt. Sac or the Stanford Invitational. People are coming from all over the country and I think our guys will put up some very good times.”

The Cougars will compete in the 1,500 meters, 3,000-meter steeplechase, 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and pole vault on Thursday and Friday at Hilmer Lodge Stadium.

The Open division of the 1,500-meter run will take place at 2:30 p.m. PDT on Thursday. It will be followed by the Open 3,000-meter steeplechase at 4:15 p.m. A couple of BYU athletes will also run in the Olympic Development division of the 3,000-meter steeplechase, which is set to start at 5 p.m.

In the 10,000-meter run, BYU has athletes competing in the Open, Elite and Olympic Development divisions. The Elite division starts at 6:40 p.m. PDT, the Olympic Development division starts at 7:50 p.m. and the open division is at 10:10 p.m.

BYU will also compete in the same three divisions in the 5,000-meter run. Races will start at 9:10 p.m. PDT (Elite), 9:25 p.m. (Olympic Development) and 9:40 p.m. (Open).

Braydon Bringhurst and Victor Weirich will compete in the Open division of the pole vault on Friday. Bringhurst’s group (Group B) will start at 10:30 a.m. PDT and Weirich’s (Group A) will start at 1 p.m. PDT.

The Cougars will also send a few athletes to compete at the Utah State Mark Faldmo Invite on Saturday in Logan, Utah. BYU will compete in the pole vault at 11:30 a.m. MDT, followed by the discus at 12 p.m. and 800-meter run at 2:10 p.m.

Full recaps of each day will be posted after competition for the day has finished.

A full program schedule for the Puma Mt. Sac Relays can be found here.

The Utah State Mark Faldmo Invite schedule can be found here.