PROVO – In the first meet of the indoor season, the BYU women’s track team won nine events and took the top three spots in six events as they dominated the BYU Cougar Indoor Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

“It’s the first meet and that definitely showed,” head coach Patrick Shane said. “But we had some athletes whose marks were very impressive. There are always highs and lows and everything in between, and this meet was no different.” 

The top event for the Cougars was the pole vault, which was won by junior Rachel Fisher with a jump of 4.10m (13-5.50). Freshman Nicole Naatjes, competing in her first collegiate meet, took second in the event by clearing 3.80m (12-5.50) and sophomore Elizabeth Portanova cleared 3.65m (11-11.75) to take third.

All-American Ada Robinson led BYU in the high jump with a leap of 1.70m (5-7.00). Diana Blauer and Taylor Stapley also both clear 1.70m but needed more attempts and finished second and third, respectively.

On the track, sophomore Aubrey Hale won the 60m dash in 7.76, while freshman Kassie Jensen finished second in 7.85. Danielle Figgins, a sophomore, finished a close third in 7.86.

Senior Diane Stewart, competing for the first time since the 2009 season, won both the 60m hurdles in 8.87 and took second in the 400m in 58.73. Freshman Angela Shields won the 400m in 58.34 in her first meet as a Cougar.

In the 800m, a traditionally strong event for BYU, the Cougars took the top three spots. Amy Thornton finished first in 2:17.15, while Jennica Redd (2:18.04) and Bethanie Krumen (2:18.60) place second and third, respectively.

The two longest running events of the day, the mile and 3000m, were both won by BYU athletes. Maren Hanson won the mile in 5:18.26 while Brooke Holt took the 3000m title in 10:27.29.

BYU will continue the indoor season Saturday, January 14 as they travel north to Boise to compete in the Boise State Invitational. The meet is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. and conclude at 3:15 p.m. MST.

CLICK HERE for final results from the BYU Cougar Indoor Invitational. 

PROVO – After several months of training, the BYU men’s and women’s track and field teams will open up the 2012 indoor season at the annual BYU Cougar Indoor Invitational beginning Friday and continuing into Saturday.

“This first meet will be very low key, local meet,” women’s head coach Patrick Shane said. “It will give us a look at our power people and some of our younger, developing distance runners, as well as some of our freshmen and redshirt freshmen.”

Both teams are competing outside the Mountain West Conference for the first time since 1999 and will be looking to prepare for the tough competition in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. This first meet will serve as a barometer for the coaches as they prepare for the rest of the season.

“The purpose of the opening meet is to give us a starting point,” Shane said. “You can workout all you want but you really never know what you have until the team starts competing. Competition has a way of revealing character traits that are not always obvious in practice.”

The University of Utah and Utah Valley University will also be competing in the meet, along with a large number of unattached athletes. BYU dominated the competition last year at the Cougar Invitational and will look to start the 2012 season in the same way.

Field events, along with the women’s pentathlon and the men’s heptathlon, will begin on Friday at noon MST while all running events will take place on Saturday beginning at 12:45 p.m. The meet will conclude with the women’s 4x400m relay on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. All events will take place in the Smith Fieldhouse.