Cougars race to 2 more titles

Another outdoor track season, another pair of conference titles for BYU.

The Mountain West Conference track and field championships wrapped up Saturday afternoon in San Diego, with BYU taking the title in both the men's and women's competitions. The victory marked the seventh conference title in a row for the men and the program's 25th overall, while the women's championship was their seventh outdoor title in the MWC and 26th overall.

The Cougar men racked up 214 points to top second-place Colorado State's 166. BYU's women won the title with 195 points, with TCU following in second with 152 points. The University of Utah's women ended in sixth with 49.5 points.

"It never gets old," said BYU men's coach Mark Robison of yet another team title. "One of our primary goals each year is to win the conference championship, that's first and foremost. Now the next goal is to do as well as we possibly can at regionals, so we can get a good group to nationals."

Robison and women's coach Craig Poole both garnered MWC coach-of-the-year honors. The Cougars also swept the top-performance-of-the-meet honors, with senior Niklas Arrhenius' MWC Championship meet record throw in the discus and sophomore Whitney McDonald's performance in the 5,000-meter run.

McDonald shattered the previous meet record by nearly 34 seconds. Other notables on the men's side included a number of Utah County natives.

Chandler Goodwin outkicked a number of competitors in the homestretch to take the win in the 1,500-meter run, the first of three Cougars to score in the event. Senior Josh Rohatinsky set a meet record in the 5,000, breaking away from the pack in the final 800 meters for the win.

"He (Rohatinsky) is in a league all by himself," Robison said. "He just played with everybody and then dropped them like they were standing still. It was amazing."

Junior Bob Low, a Timpview High graduate, placed second in the pole vault, leading a 2-3-4-5 Cougar finish in the event, notching 23 points to the team score and distancing BYU from challenging Colorado State.

For the women, junior Michelle Turner broke her own meet record in the 800, turning in a time of 2 minutes, 5.44 seconds for the win, coming in as the first of four Cougar scorers in the event. Senior Jennifer Grossarth finished third in the 400 hurdles for BYU, going along with her sixth-place finish in the 100 hurdles and her crucial anchor leg for the Cougars' third-place 4x400 relay team.

Sophomore Heidi Magill took second in the 1,500 for the women, with teammate Julie Meads coming in fourth.

"Our women's team showed up to the meet, and they performed like we expected them to perform," Poole said. "They did themselves proud by performing like champions."

Utah's Chelsea Shapard triumphed in the 400 hurdles in 58.47 seconds, with Amanda Feigt finishing seventh in the event. Freshman Alyssa Abbot was sixth in the 800, with Feigt finishing fourth in the 100 hurdles. Sophomore Ashley Patterson notched a seventh-place finish for the Utes in the 400.

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