Jump to college track and field no sweat for Menlove at BYU

In 2004, Amy Menlove wasted no time making an impact on the BYU women's track and field team.

An accomplished long jumper and sprinter, the 18-year-old from Alta High School captured both Mountain West Conference indoor and outdoor long jump titles and was named MWC female indoor freshman of the year.

And, as if she was not already contributing enough, she added another element to her repertoire this year. Four elements, to be exact.

With not even a handful of heptathlons and pentathlons under her belt, Menlove is quickly making waves in her new sport and improving her team's chances of another top-10 finish in the NCAA.

Menlove, who before this year hadn't picked up a shot put ball since she was 12, said watching former Cougar heptathlon greats Tiffany Lott-Hogan and Marsha Mark Baird compete in the 2004 Summer Olympics sparked her interest.

"It was my idea," she said. "Last year I asked coach (Craig Poole) if I could try it for fun because I had never done heptathlon and just wanted to score and say I'd done it. We made a bet that if I trained on all the events then I could do one, but then I did one and I turned out to be somewhat good."

Menlove set a new conference record and posted the highest score in the nation at the MWC championships before taking second place at NCAA indoor nationals to earn all-American honors.

Now competing outdoors, the addition of another throwing event in the heptathlon has not slowed her down. Menlove had the sixth-highest score in school history with 5,254 points last week at the Clarence Robison Invitational. The mark is currently the fourth-best time in the NCAA.

While Menlove says learning the techniques for javelin and shot put can be frustrating, she feels like the new challenges are making her an overall stronger competitor.

"I think it helps a lot to have all of the different events because you don't get bored with your one event," she said. "It helps me be more coordinated, and all of the events except for throwing all tie in with each other, so when I get better with one, the other one becomes better."

Competing in new events is not a new idea for Menlove. When she chose to come to BYU, Poole told her she would have to become not only a sprinter, but a sprinter with hurdles in the way.

"It was basically a brand new thing," she said. "It was higher hurdles than I'd ever done, a lot quicker and only a three step (approach)."