Two Provo residents/former BYU athletes produced impressive indoor seasons.
Jason Pyrah, a 1996 Olympian, won his first national championship by winning the 1,500-meter run at the U.S. national meet. He was the lone American to qualify for the world indoor championships in Paris, where he finished seventh.Pyrah had the year's fastest time by an American in the 1,500 (3:39.16) - the equivalent of a 3:56 mile - which made him the eighth fastest American ever indoors.
Sean Maye, a surprising fourth-place finisher in the 400-meter dash at the U.S. indoor championships, won a gold medal in the 4 x 400-meter relay at the world indoor championships. Teaming with Jason Rouser, Mark Everett and Deion Minor, Maye covered the third leg in 45.8 and came home with $15,000 - his share of the winner's prize.
"It's different running in Europe," said Maye of his first international competition. "There were 25,000 people there. The crowd can give you energy."
Maye, who grew up in Atlanta and attended BYU for two years, is seeking a master's degree at BYU while continuing to train. He has dabbled with the 800-meter run, running a best time of 1:47.7 last year.
PREP MARKS: A number of Utah high school students appear among the national indoor leaders in the latest issue of Track & Field News. Here's how they rank:
Trent Hooper (Viewmont), 1st, 800 meters, 1:53.10; Angie Poulson (Roy) 3rd, 400 meters, 55.56; Stephani Clark (East), 3rd, 1,600 meters, 5:03.00; Ryan Andrus (Mountain View), 4th, 1,600 meters, 4:15.00; Amanda Busenbark (Bear River), 5th, 200 meters, 24.83 (and 8th, 60 meters, 7.09); Steve Galup (Provo), 5th, high jump, 6-9; Daniel Arrhenius (Mountain View), 7th, shot put, 59-10; Matt Rowe (Mountain View), 9th, 400 meters, 49.92; Jed Patton (Cottonwood), 10th, 200 meters, 22.65.
LOTS OF LOTT: Picking up where she left off indoors, BYU's Tiffany Lott blazed to a 13.20 clocking to win the 100-meter hurdles last weekend at the Cal-Poly Invitational, the Cougars' first outdoor competition of the season.
Lott, the NCAA indoor hurdle champ and world record holder, missed the school record by a scant .02 of a second, but easily qualified for the NCAA meet. The record was set by Anu Kaljurand in 1986.
Lott, one of the country's top heptathletes, also won the javelin with a throw of 166-10, a provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA meet.
BYU's other winners: Lewis Jones, 800 meters (1:54.36); Dan Alder, 5,000 meters (14:45.05; Sam St. Clair, steeplechase (9:10.15); Erik Sorensen, 400 hurdles (52.82); Erik Lundmark, high jump (6-11 3/4); Lindsey Jones, 800 meters, (2:10.33); Amy Cox, discus, 155-4. Also, Ashley Monahan, Lindsey Jones, Lynette Jorgensen and Maggie Chan set a school record of 11:37.16 in winning the distance medley.
MISCELLANY: BYU All-American Amy Christensen, who was fifth in the shot put at the U.S. Olympic Trials and fourth in the NCAA meet last year, will redshirt the outdoor season.
Ed Eyestone placed third in the Jacksonville 15K road race, which served as the national championships. He was inches behind runnerup Mark Coogan.
Paul Pilkington, another of Utah's world-class marathoners, plans to run in the Pittsburgh Marathon (a.k.a. the national marathon championships) on May 4.
A new sub-four miler is in town. Monte Still, formerly of the University of Wyoming, moved to Salt Lake City last fall and trains occasionally with Pyrah. He has a personal record of 3:41.84 for 1,500 meters. He ran in last summer's Olympic track and field trials.