EUGENE -- The Cougars advanced several athletes to the finals and to nationals in the first day of the West Region Meet.
Five women and one man will compete in finals on Saturday. Some Cougars will see action for the first time like the steeplechase and the men's high jump. In events that finished today, four athletes are packing their bags for the National Championships.
"Things went well today, and we had a few people that did very well," BYU men's head coach Mark Robison said. "Niklas Arrhenius won the discus and had a great throw. Matt Weirich tied for fourth and cleared a lifetime best of 17 feet 5 inches. Now Niklas and Matt will advance to the National meet along with Josh Rohatinsky and Justin Palmer. Tomorrow we hope to get a few more people advancing to finals."
Weirich surpassed his career-best mark by 7.5 inches to tie for fourth and guarantee a trip to Sacramento, California. Arrhenius threw six feet farther than the next competitor to take first place in the discus. Daniel Lawson had the second-best throw of his career, but won't advance to the National meet. Nate Rencher ran a season-best 14.15 seconds in the 110 hurdles, just missing the finals, but did advance to the finals in the 400-meter hurdles with his fastest time of the season, 51.70 seconds. Stig Robertson narrowly missed the finals in the 400 hurdles, finishing in 10th place. Jason Dorais ran the 800 meters in 1:51.63, but finished two spots out of the finals.
For the women, several athletes kept their national meet hopes alive. Heidi Magill advanced to the finals, as did Julie Meads in the 1500 meters. Both Magill and Meads finished just off their season-best times. Jennifer Grossarth and Sandra Mazan advanced to finals in the 400-meter hurdles. Michelle Turner had a good race and turned in the third fastest time to advance to the finals. Whitney McDonald took second place in the 5,000 meters and secured eight points for the team to move them into sixth place over all. Mindy Neeley will advance to nationals in the long jump as an at-large bid and placed sixth overall in the west region.
"The meet went pretty well and we seem to be getting more competitive all the time," BYU women's head coach Craig Poole said. "All and all it was a good meet, and we will know more about how tough our team is by how they respond tomorrow. This meet is full of great talent, so it's hard to advance. We have to come out tomorrow and run the best races of the season to advance to nationals."
BYU has four All-Americans that will begin competition Saturday in the high jump and the 3,000-meter steeplechase.