Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
BYU Robison Invitational
Track and field climbs Big Sky ranks
4/28/2013 2:55:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
The Weber State men's and women's track teams saw a week of improvement at the BYU Robison Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
Both the men's and the women's teams had three conference qualifiers in the meet.
The men's team saw a lot of movement in both the all-time Weber State record books and in the Big Sky Conference rankings.
Both the 4x100 and the 4x400 teams moved into first place in the Big Sky Conference after winning their respective events at BYU.
The 4x100 team of Logan Leavitt, Matt White, Cylor Morgan and Chris Struckman won the event with a time of 40.78.
Meanwhile the 4x400 team of Isaac Akers, Darion Zimmerman, Matt White and Josh Peterson won its event with a time of 3:12.00
Men's head coach Dan Walker called his team's 15 seasonal bests “crazy and a great number for this time of year.”
The three Big Sky qualifiers were John Coyle in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Derek Harrebomee in the Hammer Throw and Mike Staker in the High Jump.
Struckman improved upon his lifetime best in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.27. That is good enough to put him seventh on Weber State's all-time list in that event.
Walker was very happy with the way his team competed in Provo.
“It was just a marvelous day,” he said. “We had more qualifiers, more seasonal bests, movement on our all-time lists. It would be hard to be more pleased.”
The women's team also had 15 seasonal bests, headlined by another strong effort by Tiffany Hellstrom.
Hellstrom improved her career best with a throw of 160-10.00 in the Javelin. That mark is also the best mark in the Big Sky Conference, the ninth best mark in the West Region and the 15th-best mark in the nation.
The three qualifiers on the women's side were Kassandra Reynolds in the Hammer Throw, Lindsey McFarland in the 800-meter dash and Kiersten Watkins in the 400-meter hurdles.
Reynolds' mark was 163-03.00 in the Hammer Throw, McFarland ran the 800-mater dash in 2:13.65 and Watkins finished the hurdles with a time of 1:03.44.
Jerica Wilson had a great Friday, setting a new career best in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.38. However, her weekend didn't end as well as it started when she pulled her hamstring competing in the finals of the event on Saturday.
“We hate to have losses like that,” women's head coach Jim Blaisdell said. “Injuries happen, but we are certainly sad to see it happen when it does. Jerica is a big part of our team.”
That injury aside, Blaisdell was very pleased with the results from the meet.
“We really got in some good work,” he said, “but we still have some work to do to get ready for conference.”
That conference meet is May 8-11 in Portland. In the meantime, the Wildcats will host their final home meet of the season with the Weber State Twilight Invitational on Wednesday. The field events will begin at 2 p.m. while the track events will start at approximately 4:25 p.m. The meet is open to the public.
Players Mentioned
