The combined Western Athletic Conference/High Country Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships ended Saturday in Fort Collins, Colo., just about the same way they always end: with BYU as undisputed champion. So what else is new?
The BYU men's team, despite the suspensions of two of its top sprinters, held off UTEP to win yet another WAC championship. That's a record sixth consecutive championship, if you're scoring.The BYU women's team, meanwhile, won, ho hum, another HCAC title.
The Cougars have won every HCAC championship since joining the league in 1982, a record that will never be broken. Next year the HCAC teams will join the WAC.
"You can say we won the conference outright, since we won every title," says BYU Coach Craig Poole. "Now we hope to start another victory record in the WAC next year."
Given this year's lopsided score, that appears to be a certainty. The Cougars totaled 207 points, leaving them well ahead of runner-up New Mexico, 141. Utah State, led by Ime Akpan, finished third with 133 points, which was enough to earn Vaughn Courtney Coach of the Year honors. The rest of the scores: Colorado State 92, Wyoming 91, UTEP and Utah 29, New Mexico State 2.
The WAC race was another runaway. BYU scored 245 points, with UTEP a distant second at 185. The rest of the scores: New Mexico 109, Utah 70, Colorado State 63, San Diego State 58, Wyoming 45, Air Force 40.
"What I thought would be an extremely close race turned out to be a laugher," said BYU Coach Willard Hirschi. "But there was no laughing; not until it was over."
After suspending sprinters Eric Akogyiram and Oluyemi Kayode for undisclosed disciplinary reasons earlier in the week, Hirschi feared UTEP would make a serious bid for the title. Said Hirschi, "They scored in double digits in a lot of events, but we matched them. And where we weren't expecting points, we got them. We won because we had some marvelous performances."
The Cougars won only two events Saturday. Scott Moon, a guard on the basketball team who is competing in track and field for the first time in four years, won the high jump with a leap of 7-0 1/2 (teammate Lance Greer cleared the same height but was relegated to second place based on misses). Frank Fredericks, BYU's All-American sprinter, shared a first place finish in the 100-meter dash.
The anticipated matchup between Fredericks and UTEP's Olapade Adeniken was everything it was expected to be. In the 100, Fredericks and Adeniken were matching each other stride for stride when, 15 meters from the finish, they drifted into each other and collided. After examining the finish photo, meet officials called it a tie. Both were given times of 10.16.
They met again in the 200. A year ago, Fredericks narrowly edged Adeniken in both the WAC and NCAA meets, but this time Adeniken, running inside of his rival, was the narrow winner. Their times: wind-aided 20.18 to 20.20.
The rest of the day, BYU picked up second, third and fourth places, many of them unexpected. Shaun McAlmont, who because of injuries had run only two races all year, finished second in the high hurdles and fourth in the intermediate hurdles (14.35w, 53.26). Brian Mitchell, a defensive back on loan from the football team, was a surprising third in the 100 (10.68). Ted Mecham, an All-American steeplechaser, was second in the 800 (1:52.53). Despite the loss of Kayode and Akogyiram, BYU was second in the 4 x 100 relay. The team of Marty Haws, Erik Hughes, Mitchell and Fredericks closed 39.96.
On the women's side, BYU's Cathy James and Anna Mosdell finished 1- 2 in the discus, with throws of 162-3 and 160-4, respectively. Teammate Elizabeth Katoa won the 1,500 in 4:30.71. BYU's Chris Wilson and USU's Agneta Westen both cleared 5-8 3/4 in the high jump, but Wilson was the winner on misses. BYU got another 1-2 finish in the 400 hurdles. Laura Zaugg, the heptathlon champion, was the winner, in 1:00.98, a second ahead of Kathy Gordon. Another Cougar, Leanne Whitesides, won the 5,000 in 17:56.46.
Utah State made a strong showing to finish third, thanks largely to Akpan, a sophomore from Nigeria who won the 100-meter hurdles in 13.52 (13.43 in the trials) and finished second in the 100 and fourth in the 200 with times of 11.64 and 24.39.