No. 2 Ranked Cougars Continue to Improve

COLORADO -- The No. 2 ranked women’s track team competed in the Air Force Invitational and the Husky Invitational this weekend, finding success at both locations.

“We had a pretty good meet here at Air Force, and quite a few girls improved their marks heading into conference,” BYU head coach Craig Poole said. “We will rest and recover this coming week, and will work on refining everything before we head to conference.”

Sophomore Ada Robinson was the top finisher for the Cougars at Air Force, winning the high jump at 5-10.75. Placing just behind Robinson was teammate Diana Blauer, who finished second at 5-08.75.

Another positive event for the team was the 60-meter dash, as three BYU athletes finished in the top ten. Junior Porshe Giddings finished third at 7.61, senior Amy Otis finished ninth at 7.73 and junior Ashleigh Jameson finished tenth at 7.74.

Otis also found success in the 60-meter hurdles, which she won in 8.40. Junior Mindy Robins and sophomore Fatima Makakala also scored in the event, finishing fifth (8.79) and sixth (8.82) respectively.

Also finishing first for the Cougars at Air Force was sophomore Natalie Stewart, who won the 400-meter dash in 55.44. The only athlete to top Stewart’s time was former BYU runner Jennifer Grossarth, who was competing unattached and therefore cannot score points.

The final top spot for BYU came in the 4x400-meter relay, where the team of Otis, Robins, Chelsea Taylor and Stewart claimed victory in a time of 3:52.30.

Up in Washington, BYU assistant coach Patrick Shane led the distance runners to many personal records.

“We had a wonderful meet, and almost all the girls achieved new personal records,” Shane said. “It was a great meet, especially since we were here two weeks ago, then at New York and now back in Washington. Its not easy on the athletes going coast-to-coast like that.”

The top finished in Washington from BYU was senior Angela Wagner, who finished third in the 800-meter with a provisionally qualifying time of 2:05.72. Also running the 800 was freshman Nicole Clark, who set a personal record at 2:09.27.

BYU also had three runners competing in the mile, all of which placed in the top 30 spots and ran season best times against very tough competition. Freshmen Lisa Drury (5:01.35) and Michelanne Laurent (4:49.23) improved their times and Sarah Yingling also ran well, finishing in 4:52.12.

Coach Poole will send some athletes to the Weber State Invitational next weekend to lead into the conference season, but will rest most of his athletes, with the MWC Championships on the horizon on February 26-27.