PROVO, Utah – The nationally-ranked BYU men's and women's track & field teams will compete in the Western Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Ft. Collins, Colo., beginning Wednesday May 19-22. The Heptathlon and Decathlon will get under way on Wednesday, with the men's and women's 10,000-meter finals taking place on Thursday. The field and running events will begin on Friday and conclude on Saturday.

On the men's side, BYU will look to take home a second-straight outdoor WAC title in the team's final WAC competition. The Cougars have won 12 conference outdoor championships since 1980, including a string of nine straight from 1985-1993.

"We should be able to win this meet if we have a reasonable performance," men's head coach Willard Hirschi said. "The last time we ran in Fort Collins we had the best performances I have ever witnessed in 35 years. We would like to see that trend continue."

According to this week's power rankings, BYU has 10 student-athletes ranked in the top-10 of their individual events, including 1998 NCAA 100-meter champion Leonard Myles-Mills. 

After recovering from an injury early in the season, Myles-Mills turned in the nation's second fastest time of the year at the Utah Collegiate Championships last week in Logan, Utah. Myles-Mills' time of 10.04 ranks second in the nation. Teammate Kenneth Andam ranks 11th in the nation with a 10.21 time in the 100-meters, while his time of 20.47 in the 200-meters ranks seventh best. 

After being slowed by injury late in the season, All-American Clayton Patch will compete in the 400-meters for the Cougars. Patch ranks eighth nationally with a season-best performance of 45.75. The heavyweight duo of Jim Roberts and Doug Bryant will look to score valuable points in the field events. Roberts ranks second in the nation in the shotput, while Bryant ranks fourth in the hammer.

"We're not the No.2-ranked team in the country by fluke," Hirschi said. "We have a lot of depth and quality in many of our events. I guess the only real question would be in our distance events. The season has not been as good as we had hoped. They have yet to perform at the level they are capable of achieving." 

In women's action, the Cougars will complete with a host of 15 All-Americans and looking to capture their 17th straight conference title, including the team's ninth consecutive WAC trophy. Currently ranked second in the nation, the Cougars are heavily favored entering the meet, however they may receive some competition from 19th-ranked Fresno State or 30th-ranked Colorado State.

"We feel like we're in a position to do very well at this meet," women's head coach Craig Poole said. "At this point, it is our desire to win our final WAC Championship."

The Cougars have 11 different student-athletes ranked in the top-10 of 14 different events, including the nation's top 5,000-meter performer, Tara Rohatinsky. The sophomore from Provo, Utah turned in a 16:08.81 earlier in the season to rank as the nation's fastest 5,000-meter time this season. All-American Maggie Chan is expected to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase, followed closely by teammate Lindsey Jones. Jones also ranks sixth nationally in the 1,500-meters with a season-best 4:18.00. 

All-American Kirstin Bolm ranks fifth in both the 100-meter hurdles (13.17) and the long jump (21-0), while Julie Bennion ranks eighth in both the 400-meter hurdles and the 400-meter sprint. According to Poole, Bennion is only expected to compete in the 400–meter hurdles over the weekend.

Other top performers expected to compete for the Cougars include, Treva Bryan (10th, 800-meters), Amy Curtis (10th, javelin), Sarah Higham (8th, pole vault) and Melanie Steere (8th, 1,500-meters).

Source: BYU Press Release

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