BYU's Oluyemi Kayode took second place in the 200-meter dash Saturday night in the NCAA Track Championships to salvage something in an otherwise lackluster showing by Utah athletes in this meet. Kayode, a senior from Nigeria who was seventh in last summer's Olympic 200, clocked a time of 20.35 to finish second to Ohio State's Chris Nelloms (20.27).
"He was in Lane 7 and ran a good turn through most of it, but then he kind of eased up," said BYU coach Willard Hirschi. "Coming off the turn he was probably in fourth place, then he caught everyone but Nelloms. He just didn't keep the pressure on. He could have won it."Kayode's performance in the 200 offset a poor showing earlier in the evening in the 100-meter dash. "He had an absolutely atrocious start," said Hirschi. "He almost fell down." Kayode finished sixth with a time of 10.40 - well off the 10.28 he ran in both the quarterfinals and semifinals. Clemson's Michael Green won the 100 handily with a time of 10.09 seconds.
"If he had had a reasonably good start, I don't know what he would have done," said Hirschi.
Elsewhere, the hard times continued for Utah athletes. Bill Schuffenhaur, a sophomore at Weber State, was in fifth place when he no-heighted in the pole vault. He wound up in 13th place with a score of 6,921 - some 500 points off his best performance this season. Schuffenhaur also no-heighted in last summer's World Junior Track and Field Championships.
Earlier in the week, another of Utah's top hopes, BYU's Anu Kaljurand, the defending heptathlon champion, was forced to withdraw from the competition because of an injury. And BYU's Jason Pyrah, a fourth-place finisher in the 1,500-meter run last year, failed to make the finals of the 1,500.
However, Weber State's Kurt Black did manage to finish third in the steeplechase on Friday with a fine time of 8:29.