Divided the Pokes conquer.
At least that was the case last weekend when Wyoming kicked-off their outdoor track season at the Fum McGraw Quadrangular in Fort Collins, Colo. and at the UC Riverside Spring Track Classic in Riverside, Calif.
Picking up right where they left off at the Mountain West Indoor Championship, Wyoming concluded the Fum McGraw meet with 22 Cowboys in the top ten in 13 events and 21 Cowgirls in the top ten in 14 events
Sophomore Kereston Thomas walked away from the Quadrangular with two first-place finishes in the 100 meter in 11.84 and in the 200 meter in 24.26.
Ranking third in Wyoming’s history with a time of 10:59.68 in the steeplechase, redshirt freshman Audra DeStefano secured second place in the event.
Senior Garret Zans also performed well in steeplechase, earning a first-place finish with a time of 8:57.73. Sophomore Amos Bowen finished two places behind Zans with a time of 9:40.01.
“We had some very good starting marks across the board,” said Wyoming Head Coach Bryan Berryhill. “You don’t come out in the first meet very often and get the number of top-10 marks we did, but to do that in the first go round is impressive. Kereston picked up right where she left off during indoors, and Zans and DeStefano ran good steeple times early in the morning when it was pretty cold out. Gardner’s time in a very tough event was pretty good for the first outdoor meet as well.”
Fresh off his performance at the NCAA Indoor Championship, senior Mason Finley finished in second place in the discuss. Finley’s 184-10 toss garnered him seventh place in school history in the event.
For the six athletes who competed a time zone away at the UC Riverside Spring Track Classic, last weekend also contained numerous successes.
Shattering his personal-best score by over 700-points, junior Kyle Sullivan won the decathlon with 6,772 points. Sullivan’s new personal best ranks seventh in Wyoming’s history.
Fortunately for the Pokes, crushing one personal best was not enough for the junior. Sullivan set four personal bests during his performance on Thursday and four more on Friday.
“What is exciting about Kyle’s performance is he set outdoor PRs, but nothing was really jaw dropping,” said assistant coach Shaun Meinecke to gowyo.com. “Everything was just solid all the way through and that was what we expected. That’s kind of where we are right now. We are in heavy-volume training and showed there is still room for improvement. He will have plenty of time to hopefully drop jaws later.”
Senior Jenna Mann finished in 11th in a field of 14 athletes in the heptathlon with 3,996 points. Mann failed to place in the javelin throw in the event; her throws were all ruled as fouls because the javelin did not land tip-first.
“Today doesn’t change our perception of where Jenna is at,” said Meineck to gowyo.com. “It can be frustrating when judgment calls don’t go your way, but that doesn’t change the fact that if those had gone our way, she probably would have finished with 5,400 points today.”
Wyoming continues their season in Colorado Springs, Colo. this weekend at the Air Force Relays.
