More BYU athletes qualify for track and field nationals
BYU’s Dallin Shurts, a 6-foot-6 senior from Oregon, won the discus at the NCAA West Preliminaries Friday in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to advance to the NCAA track and field championships.
Shurts, who was ranked fourth among collegians entering the meet, won the competition with a throw of 203 feet, 10 inches. Dimitrios Pavlidis of Kansas was second with a throw of 199-1.
Shurts, the runner-up in last week’s Big 12 championships, was the 2022 runner-up at the USA national championships.
The West and East Preliminaries, held simultaneously in Lexington, Kentucky, and Fayetteville, are used to determine qualifiers for the NCAA championships, scheduled for June 5-8 in Eugene, Oregon.
The top 12 in each event advance.
Shurts was one of five BYU athletes who qualified for nationals in an individual event Friday, and the Cougars also qualified a relay team. Two other BYU athletes qualified for nationals on Wednesday, shot putter Danny Bryant and javelin thrower Cameron Bates.
Three Utah collegians advanced to the NCAA championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. BYU’s James Corrigan was third (8:38.81), Southern Utah’s Hayden Harward was sixth (9:40.42) and BYU’s Wyat Haughton was 10th (8:47.89).
Sebastian Fernandez, another BYU athlete, finished 10th in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:47.77 to earn a berth in the NCAA championships.
Utah State freshman Landon Bott was 18th, with a time of 1:49.78.
BYU’s 4 x 400 relay team finished ninth with a time of 3:04.21, while Aidan Troutner, a junior from Provo, advanced to nationals with an 11th-place finish in the 5,000-meter run, clocking 13:52.86.
Lucas Bons, BYU’s All-American middle-distance runner, failed to advance out of the quarterfinal round of the 1,500-meter run. He was 17th, with a time of 3:41.89.
Riley Hunt, who broke a 45-year-old school record on Wednesday, finished 17th in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 13.76 in Friday’s quarterfinals and failed to advance.
He clocked 13.70 in the first round, breaking a record of 13.79 set by Rafael Echavarria in 1979.
The women will take the stage Saturday for the final day of competition. BYU’s top entries include Sadie Sargent in the 5,000 (she was fourth in Thursday’s 10,000-meter race), Taylor Lovell in the steeplechase, Cierra Allphin in the high jump and Jaslyn Gardner in the 100.
Gardner had the fourth fastest 100-meter time in Thursday’s first round.
