NCAA meet is mixed bag for BYU runners

PROVO — Perhaps it's fitting that BYU's lone national champion in track this year was steeplechase athlete Josh McAdams, whose grueling event is probably the best symbol of the challenges and struggles the men's and women's team faced this season.

The hybrid event, whose origin could only be the dark fantasy of some sadistic runner in ancient Greece, requires competitors to clear numerous hurdles and water traps in a 3,000-meter endurance race.

In like fashion, the track season, which began for most Cougar athletes with the indoor season nearly six months ago, has been long and fraught with trials. Both teams, the men's and women's, were hit with a rash of injuries early in the season, and though some athletes were able to heal and return to competition, other key contributors were not.

Both teams peaked at the right time, sweeping the Mountain West Conference Championship meet and turning in a better-than-expected finish at the NCAA Regional meet, but had a bag of mixed results at last week's NCAA Championships.

While McAdams brought home a national title, two teammates who were expected to do likewise — pole vaulter Robbie Pratt and discus thrower Niklas Arrhenius — had one of their worst meets of the season. Pratt, a defending national champion going into the NCAA meet, managed to finish second, but Arrhenius, who entered the NCAA meet ranked second in the nation, finished last.

"Nationals were a little disappointing," McAdams said. "We had some people who didn't finish as high as they hoped, but that's just the nature of the sport. Sometimes you're the pigeon, sometimes you're the statue."

The women's team, which sent five athletes to the NCAA meet, had only one athlete finish in scoring position, freshman Amy Fowler, who finished seventh in the steeplechase.

"I'm really happy with how I did," Fowler said. "I never expected to make it that far, but I was able to do so with the support of my coaches and teammates."

Women's coach Craig Poole said he is more concerned with the individual progression of each athlete than he is with titles, and in that spirit, said the season was a great success.

"I look at the development of each person, where they are and where they started, and in some cases that's going back two or three years," Poole said. "From that standpoint, we're eons ahead of where we were and we will continue to do all we need to do to help athletes maximize their potential."