Track meet for college, prep athletes resumes

The collegiate indoor track season began Thursday with the opening events of the Oval Open. The meet features athletes from host BYU, Utah, Weber State and UVSC. There are also events for high school athletes.

The Oval Open competition will be split between two sites: BYU's Smith Fieldhouse and the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns. Today's competition at the Smith Fieldhouse will feature the women's pentathlon, the second day of men's heptathlon competition and several field events starting at 4 p.m. with the weight throw, high jump and shot put.

Saturday's events at the Olympic Oval begin at 10 a.m. with the men's pole vault and will continue in the afternoon with final running events. The meet will conclude with the men's and women's 4X400m relay finals beginning at 6 p.m.

BYU's men's team, coming off a first-place conference finish and a 27th-place finish at nationals in 2003, will compete with most of its athletes, including several younger team members.

"We are just excited to have them competing," men's head coach Mark Robison said. "The indoor season is so quick and because of missions most of our men have not competed in such a long time."

The No. 10 BYU women will begin its push toward a fifth straight conference title. The women's team will send most of its athletes to compete along with unattached runners Tiffany Lott-Hogan, Nikki Hughes and Jennifer Rockwell.

Utah is coming off one of the most successful indoor track and field seasons in school history. During the 2003 indoor season, the Utes posted five school records, 132 personal records, 73 top 10 performances, two NCAA provisional qualifying marks and one NCAA Championship qualifying mark.

The Olympic Oval boasts a 442-meter, state-of-the-art Mondo Super X track that has four lanes. One of the hockey rinks inside the track will be converted into the field area for the jumping pits.

Said UVSC track coach Jed Gibson: "The Olympic Oval is a great place to run. It is a very fast track. We had some of our best indoor marks there last year and should have several good marks there again this year."