COLLEGE STATION, Texas – BYU women’s track and field team placed fifth out of 11 teams in the Texas A&M Team Invitational this weekend.

Coach Eyestone said that when battling some of the best athletes from the SEC and the Big 12, it’s a great result.

“It’s still a very early meet but this was a good learning experience. We occasionally travel to places like Texas A&M just to get the experience of going against national caliber completion,” said Eyestone.

Both the women’s and men’s distance medley relay teams placed first with a time of 11:44.06 and 9:45.18.

“It was nice for both the women’s and the men’s DMR to represent; they had very solid legs in all their runners,” said Eyestone. “Anytime you open the meet with a strong really that kind of sets the pace fro things.”

Shae Collinsworth placed second in the 800 meters with a time of 2:04.52.

“With that time she should end up punching her ticket into the NCAA indoor meet. It will hold up as one of the fastest times in the country so that should get her into the national meet, so that was exciting,” said Eyestone.

Andrea Stapleton placed second in the high jump with a new PR of 1.76 meters.

“She’s continuing to do very well. She’s a freshman but she’s fearless with her attitude and not intimidated by the older competitors that she competes against and I think she’s going to continue to improve as well,” said Eyestone.

Alyssa Monteverde-Dalton placed fifth overall in the 60 meter hurdles. Eyestone said that making it in the top eight out of the SEC and Big 12 competitors was a nice performance for her.

Overall, Eyestone thought it was great opportunity and big time experience for the athletes to be part of before the opportunity comes to participate in the national meet.

“We scored as well as we did and at such an early meet you’re more concerned about giving your athletes a good experience than you are trying to load up trying to win the meet. I think a lot of other teams have that same philosophy but its still nice for scoring third and fifth,” said Eyestone.

Next weekend the team will be traveling to Colorado to compete in the Air Force Invitational.

PROVO, Utah — BYU’s women’s track and field will be traveling to College Station, Texas, to compete in the 11-team Texas A&M Invitational on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 15 and 16.

Texas A&M, Avalon Christian, Baylor, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Texas, TCU, Texas State, UTSA, and SFA are among the other universities competing in this weekend's invitational.

Coach Eyestone said there should be plenty of good competition and a good opportunity to go down to a different part of the country.

"Texas A&M is one of the track power houses certainly, especially their sprints and jumps. I think we’ll be able to match up with them pretty well and that’s certainly in the distance events and little distance events we’ll be pretty strong,” Eyestone said.

Eyestone said their goal for this invitational is to get in and get the best performance possible to progress towards their fastest times later on in the indoor season.

“I’d be a little bit surprised to be pulling out our fastest times of the year this early, but it is an important step in the process of just improving one week to the next and that’s what we hope to do this week,” Eyestone said.

Athletes to watch among the women attending the invitational will be Shea Collinsworth, Anginae Monteverde (pole-vault), Alyssa Monteverde-Dalton (60-meter hurdles), and Andrea Stapleton (high jump).

“Shea Collinsworth will be competing—she’s one of our returning All-Americans from last year and anytime she gets on the track it's noteworthy and she’ll try to be posting a good time there,” Eyestone said. “I think she has a very good ability and capability of winning her event and posting a time that will hopefully get her progressing towards one of those top 16 times in the country.”

Eyestone said there are going to be a lot of other women going this weekend and hopefully they have good days.

The event results will be available at FlashRecords.com.