BYU track and field: Men's squad takes 11th straight track title

FORT WORTH, Texas — The BYU men's team withstood an expected charge by meet host TCU on the final day to win the 2008 Mountain West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday.

The victory marks a BYU-record 11th straight league title, including nine straight MWC championships.

"Each year is a little different — it never gets old," BYU head men's coach Mark Robison said. "There are always new challenges to overcome, and there's always something different, but it's always nice to win the conference championship. We have a great group of young men. I'm really proud of them for coming out here and competing."

The BYU men won five individual events, equalling last year's total. Sophomore Leif Arrhenius was named the meet's top athlete, winning both the shot put and discus and finishing second in the hammer throw. Arrhenius picked up 28 of the Cougars' 210 points.

TCU finished second with 192 points and Air Force was third with 135, followed by Colorado State with 126, New Mexico with 87 and Wyoming with 53.

Robison, now in his eighth year as BYU's coach, has never lost a MWC championship meet. He was named the MWC Men's Coach of the Year.

The BYU women took second place behind a senior-laden squad from Colorado State. The Cougars finished 46 points behind the Rams and 15 points ahead of third-place San Diego State. TCU finished fourth in the women's competition with 122 points, followed by New Mexico with 78, Utah with 58, Wyoming 46, UNLV 35 points and Air Force with 26.

"We're really pleased with our performance," BYU women's coach Craig Poole said. "Coming in to the meet we knew we would have to perform well in order to take second or third. In some cases, I think we exceeded those expectations. We had a lot of freshman perform very well for us throughout the meet, and I think you can say our future looks bright."

The BYU women finished with three individual champions, including freshman Katie Palmer in the 800 meters, junior Angela Wagner in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Utah's Chelsea Shapard won her second straight 400-meter hurdles title with a time of 58.51, winning by 3/100ths of a second.

WAC CHAMPIONSHIPS: At Boise, Idaho, Utah State University finished second and the Aggie women finished fourth at the Western Athletic Conference Track And Field Championships.

The Aggies had three event winners on the day, sweeping both the men's and women's 400-meter hurdles events and the men's 5,000 meter run.