Top athletes perform at Y.

PROVO — A few of America's best gathered at BYU's Robison Track and Field complex Friday for the 2007 High Performance Sprint and Power meet, sponsored by the High Performance Committee of U.S.A. Track and Field.

The meet, designed to produce as many Olympic "A" standard qualifying marks as possible, employs a unique schedule to provide elite sprinters and field event athletes optimum conditions for qualifying marks. Extended rest periods between events and multiple chances for competition give athletes every advantage possible.

"You end up with a very athlete-friendly meet — because it's so spread out," said BYU track operations administrator Doug Padilla.

Friday's events consisted mainly of preliminaries heading into today's finals, with 48 U.S.A. track-sponsored athletes slated to compete alongside a few of Utah's finest from the collegiate and high school ranks.

A top-notch field in the men's long jump started things off with Bashire Ramzy leaping to the No. 2 mark in the U.S. this year with a jump of 26 feet, 6 1/4 inches. Joe Allen, competing for Sprint Mgt., tallied the nation's No. 4 mark of the year at 26-04 1/2.

In the women's hammer throw, three Olympic "B"-standard throws were topped when Kristal Yush unleashed a throw of 222 feet, 8 inches, surpassing the "A" standard and giving her the top seed for today's finals.

American-record holder Kim Creiner tallied the day's best mark in the women's javelin throw at 193 feet, 6 inches on her last attempt.

"On the first two, I knew my rhythm was off a bit," she said."But by the third throw I'd figured my steps out, so I've got it down for tomorrow. I'll just rest and ice all the body parts and wait for the big one tomorrow."

The lone final of the day in the field was in the women's pole vault, which was dominated by BYU athletes. Ashley McCallister, who will compete at the NCAA championships next week, topped the field with a vault of 13-03 1/2.

The decathlon and heptathlon were competed Wednesday and Thursday with a somewhat depleted field, as some top athletes chose to attend another meet in New York. Kyle Grossarth, currently an assistant coach with BYU's men's team, triumphed in the decathlon, finishing with 6,821 points.

Grossarth's highest scoring event was the 110-meter hurdles, where his time of 14.76 seconds was good enough for 879 points on the equivalency scale. In the pentathlon, Nike's Christine Spence was first with 5,159 points.

BYU's Ryan Jones took the 800-meter run in a time of 1:53.68. Timpanogos High School's Silas Pimentel competed in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, with Timpview's Jaren Goodwin racing in the 400-meter dash.

Today's events begin at 10 a.m. with the men's hammer throw and the 400-meter hurdles.

---

E-mail: davidr@desnews.com