BYU’s Courtney Wayment, the senior from Kaysville, claimed her third NCAA championship Friday at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Birmingham, Alabama. She will attempt to claim a fourth championship today.
Wayment took the lead with 1,200 meters remaining in the 5,000-meter run (3.1 miles) and held off several challengers to win the race. Three rivals challenged Wayment with 400 meters to go and again down the final homestretch, but she fought them off. Wayment’s time was 15:30.17. North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy, the former high school sensation, was second in 15:30.63.
Today Wayment will compete in the 3,000-meter run, an event she won in last year’s championships.
Wayment also anchored BYU’s winning distance medley relay last year, but her 5,000-3,000 double precluded her participation in the relay. Without Wayment, BYU’s DMR finished ninth with a time of 11:06.74, some 15 seconds behind the winning performance by Arkansas.
The other big news of the day for Utah collegians was the performance of Zach McWhorter, who finished second in the pole vault for the second straight year. McWhorter, who had the nation’s leading mark (19-2 1/4) entering the meet, cleared 18-8 1/4. The competition was decided on the last jump, with Princeton’s Sondre Guttormsen clearing 18-10 1/4. McWhorter’s teammate, Celeb Witsken, finished 10th with a vault of 17-10 1/4.
Freshman Cailee Faulkner, who set a school record of 14-4 this winter, improving her high school mark by nearly four feet, no-heighted in Friday’s meet.
BYU’s Claire Seymour had the fastest qualifying time in the 800-meter trials Friday with a time of 2:03.48. Only one second separated first place from 10th place.
Southern Utah’s Nate Osterstock, a senior from Olympus High, placed 13th in the prelims for the mile run with a time of 4:03.27. The top 11 advanced to the final.