BYU's overall team depth led the Cougars to a sweep of the Western Athletic Conference men's and women's outdoor track and field titles Saturday at the Rice Track Stadium.
The men's title was Brigham Young's 17th overall team crown, but first since 1995 to end the two-year reign of the University of Texas at El Paso. The Brigham Young women scored more points than their next three closest pursuers combined and easily won all eight WAC women's outdoor championships.The Cougar men had just one individual winner out of 21 events contested, Clayton Patch in the 400 meters, but had four second-place finishes including a 2-3-5 result in the 400-meter hurdles, to finish with 1351/2 points. Fresno State was in second with 109 points, followed by Texas Christian University in third at 103 and Colorado State in fourth at 97.
BYU's women had six individual winners, including Amy Palmer's meet-record toss of 206 feet, 3 inches in the hammer Saturday, for a total of 249 points. Southern Methodist University was second with 78 points, followed by San Diego State in third with 74.
"We've got excellent people in every event. We may not have the caliber of individuals that other WAC teams do, but we have the best team," Cougar men's coach Williard Hirschi said.
Brigham Young women's coach Craig Poole said his team's superior depth was the reason the Cougars continue to dominate the WAC.
"We scored in every event but two. We've had other titles like this at the conference meet, but across the board in terms of quality, this may be the best team we've ever had," Poole said.
Fresno State junior Melissa Price got the final day of competition off to a roaring start in the women's pole vault, improving her collegiate record to 14 feet, 3 1/2 inches.
A number of meet records fell Saturday. Colorado State's Bryan Berryhill won the men's 1500 meters in a time of 3:40.53, breaking Sulieman Nyambui's 17-year-old meet record.
In the women's 1500 meters, Rice junior Shaquandra Roberson held off Brigham Young's Lindsay Jones to win in a time of 4:20.32, nearly two seconds better than the previous meet standard.
The meet records in both the men's and women's 800 meters also fell to a pair of defending champions, Texas Christian senior Khadevis Robinson and Texas-El Paso senior Jeanette Castro. Robinson's time in the men's 800, 1:46.06, also broke the Rice Track Stadium record and is the fastest time run by a collegian in 1998.
Castro repeated in the women's 800 in a winning time of 2:05.34, almost a full second faster than the 2:06.31 meet record she had set in 1997.
Rice junior Drexell Owusu was the lone athlete to win more than one event, winning the triple jump easily Saturday to go along with Friday's long jump title.