For the ninth consecutive year, BYU's men won the Western Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships Saturday in El Paso, and it wasn't even close.
Oluyemi Kayode swept the sprints and was named the meet's co-MVP, and Dave Spence won the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs to lead the Cougars to another men's title.With Fresno State and its strong track team joining the WAC for the first time this spring, it was expected to be a close competition, but it wasn't. BYU finished with 224 points easily outpacing second place Fresno State which finished with 166. UTEP finished with 125, Air Force ended the meet with 76, New Mexico had 73.5, CSU had 72.5, Wyoming 72 and Utah 2.
"We had a lot of excellent performances," said Willard Hirschi, who has claimed nine of 10 indoor and outdoor titles since becoming the BYU head coach five years ago. "We performed well all down the line."
No one better than Kayode, who, after a quiet season, won the 100-meter dash in 10.28 and the 200 in 20.44. Kayode also joined Mark Godfrey, Tyler Anderson and Jim Waite in running a leg on BYU's winning 4 x 100-meter relay, which clocked a school record time of 39.47.
"Kayode has been coming on and getting better and better each week," said Hirschi.
While the BYU men won going away, the BYU women had to go to the wire to claim their 11th consecutive conference championship.
Heather Witney's victory in the 5,000 meter and a strong showing in the 1,600 meter relay put Brigham Young over the top.
BYU and Fresno, which was competing in its first WAC meet, entered the final two events of the women's competition tied at 185.
But, BYU's Witney won the 5,000 with a time of 17:49.47 and teammate Kim Stossel finished third at 18:11.15. That combined with a second-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay helped the Cougars edge the Bulldogs.
The Lady Cougars finished the four-day meet with 209 points followed by Fresno's 198. Colorado State finished third with 85 and Texas-El Paso, the Cougars' longtime rival placed fourth with 83.
The University of Wyoming finished with 64, New Mexico with 58.8, San Diego State with 22.5 and the University of Utah with 19.
UTEP's Melinda Sergent qualified for the NCAA championships with an 11.43 finish in the 100 meter dash beating out last year's champion Cathie Guischard of BYU who finished today with 11.61. The automatic qualifying time is 11.43.
Sergant also won the 200 meter dash with a time of 23.55. Cathie Guischard came in second with 23.73 and Dena Burrows from BYU came in third with 23.88.
BYU claimed second, third and fourth in the 1500 - Dorota Buczowska in 4:33.12, Tonya Todd in 4:33.93, and Melissa Balderas in 4:39.10.