BYU’s Sebastian Fernandez, a freshman from Andover, Minnesota, competes within the 800 meters on the NCAA West Preliminaries in Fayetteville, Arkansas, final month. The previous walk-on certified for the NCAA championships after posting a time of 1 minute, 47.62 seconds. Nate Edwards, BYU Picture
BYU pole vaulter Zach McWhorter goes up for a vault as he trains along with his dad, Rick, who can also be his coach, on the Smith Fieldhouse at BYU in Provo on Friday, March 5, 2021. Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
BYU javelin thrower Ashton Riner prepares to throw through the NCAA Championship West Preliminary Meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas, final month. Nate Edwards, BYU Picture
BYU athletes compete within the NCAA Championship West Preliminary Meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Nate Edwards, BYU Picture
Sebastian Fernandez is a kind of athletes who epitomize the BYU observe and area staff, and his story is without doubt one of the explanation why the Cougars are so profitable within the sport, regardless of not being in one of many so-called Energy 5 conferences.
The chemical engineering main walked on to the staff a couple of months in the past, after having been lower from the squad the earlier 12 months, and 4 or 5 meets later is now one of many 22 athletes who will characterize BYU on the 2022 NCAA Division I Out of doors Observe and Area Championships this week in Eugene, Oregon.
Fernandez, a freshman from Andover, Minnesota, certified within the 800 meters after posting a time of 1 minute, 47.62 seconds on the NCAA West Preliminaries in Fayetteville, Arkansas, final month. He's the primary BYU runner to qualify for nationals within the 800 since Shaquille Walker in 2016.
“He's doing unbelievably effectively,” stated BYU affiliate head coach Mark Robison. “He has solely been on the staff for, like, two months, and he’s a nationwide qualifier. It’s wonderful.”
“What's fascinating about this staff, is that on each the lads’s and ladies’s aspect we've folks in a lot of totally different teams. To have that type of unfold is a bit bit extra uncommon.” — BYU affiliate head coach Mark Robison
Fernandez advised BYUtv’s “BYU Sports activities Nation” present that he has shaved six seconds off his 800 time within the house of a 12 months, having tried out unsuccessfully final 12 months. He ran a 1:47.03 on the BYU Cougar Invitational in Provo on Might 14 to interrupt the observe document.
“Actually, each time I've stepped on the observe this season I really feel like I've shocked myself. And that’s a superb feeling to have,” he stated, humbly crediting a brand new pair of spikes for his upswing. “It's simply cool. It's unreal, actually, that I used to be capable of make it to nationals. That wasn’t even on my radar.”
Fernandez stated after he ran a 1:50.83 within the West Coast Relays as an unattached athlete a couple of months in the past, BYU athletics growth coordinator Isaac Wooden notified BYU director of observe and area Ed Eyestone in regards to the feat and Eyestone gave him a telephone name a couple of days later and made him an official member of the staff, after some paperwork points with the NCAA clearinghouse had been resolved.
“I feel he's simply as shocked as I'm,” Fernandez stated.
As a staff, the Cougars have 22 entries at Oregon’s reimagined Hayward Area this week, which is tied for eighth within the nation and the fifth-most at school historical past. BYU athletes will compete in 12 occasions, beginning Wednesday and working by Saturday.
Texas has probably the most entries, with 33, adopted by Florida with 28 and LSU with 25.
Males’s occasions run Wednesday and Friday, whereas girls’s occasions run Thursday and Saturday. Heptathlon and decathlon — BYU has entries in every with Dallin Vorkink in decathlon and Halley Folsom-Walker in heptathlon — might be held Wednesday-Friday (decathlon) and Thursday-Saturday (heptathlon).
“What's fascinating about this staff, is that on each the lads’s and ladies’s aspect we've folks in a lot of totally different teams,” stated Robison, whose father Clarence was head observe coach at BYU for 40 years. The Cougars’ observe stadium is known as after him.
“To have that type of unfold is a bit bit extra uncommon, and it's a fairly superior staff due to that.”
Secret to their success
BYU, which is able to be a part of the Huge 12 in 2023, is the one staff within the high 20 from a non-Energy 5 convention. How do the Cougars do it, 12 months in and 12 months out?
“A whole lot of it's simply custom,” Robison stated. “We are able to get youngsters to come back and stroll on and achieve success. In my group, Dallin Vorkink, the decathlete who has an opportunity to attain factors, was a walk-on. Halley Folsom, she is true up there, too, within the heptathlon. She’s a walk-on, and Sebastian, too.”
Observe and area is an “equivalency sport,” which implies not each athlete will get a full-ride scholarship. Males’s groups get 12.6 scholarships to divide them up nevertheless coaches see match, whereas girls’s observe groups get 18.
“So when you've 50-60 folks on the staff, and you've got 12 scholarships to present, that may be a actual small fraction,” Robison stated. “Younger individuals are prepared to come back and get most likely much less scholarship cash right here than they might somewhere else, after which we hope we may help them in different methods.”
The coach who's in his thirty seventh 12 months at BYU stated males’s observe has the poorest ratio of members to scholarships of any sport beneath the NCAA umbrella.
He stated BYU’s comparatively low tuition prices for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sponsors the varsity, additionally assist this system draw scholarship-caliber athletes as walk-ons.
“The state of Utah in observe and area, per capita, matches up extraordinarily effectively with folks all around the nation,” he stated. “After which to have a whole lot of the LDS youngsters all through the USA coming right here, that helps. We've been very lucky to get the LDS and non-LDS youngsters that may come. And we've been lucky as a result of BYU could be very cheap. … With the Pac-12, there's not a college aside from the College of Utah that's not a fortune to go to.”
Robison additionally credited BYU’s administration, saying the faculty as an entire and the athletic division particularly have been very supportive.
“They allow us to have a bit larger staff, so we may develop it. After which with the returned missionaries and all that type of stuff, it's a longer plan to have the ability to get the youngsters to the place they're going to have the ability to assist us. … We've been good for a very long time — since my dad was right here, and all these years, 30 years in the past when he retired. So it has been enjoyable and we've simply been capable of get the momentum going and have some nice younger folks.”
Utah faculties well-represented
BYU isn’t the one faculty in Utah sending athletes to nationals: Josefine Eriksen (800 meters) and Cara Woolnough (5000 meters) will characterize the Utes, whereas Southern Utah senior Elizabeth White (lengthy soar) is SUU’s lone entrant in Eugene.
Utah Valley is sending its largest group of qualifiers, 4, at school historical past: Hannah Department and Everlyn Kemboi within the 10,000 meters; faculty record-holder Adam Bunker within the 3,000-meter steeplechase; and Aaron Johnson within the lengthy soar.
BYU males eye one other top-10 end
With 12 entries, tied for second-most nationally, BYU’s No. 4-ranked males’s staff has a official shot at a top-10 end, Robison believes. The Cougars had been seventeenth in 2021 and eighth in 2019. No meet was held in 2020, because of the pandemic.
The Cougars are particularly sturdy in pole vault, as Zach McWhorter is ranked No. 2 nationally and might be making his second-straight look at nationals, having completed ninth there a 12 months in the past. Caleb Witsken is sixth nationally and has a season-best clearance of 5.56 meters.
BYU pole vaulter Zach McWhorter goes up for a vault as he trains along with his dad, Rick, who can also be his coach, on the Smith Fieldhouse at BYU in Provo on Friday, March 5, 2021.
Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information
“Zach doesn’t have the very best soar within the nation, however he will certainly be an element. He was second in indoors,” Robison stated. “He’s obtained an opportunity to win. After which Caleb Witsken may make some noise, too. These two may each end excessive.”
Kenneth Rooks is ranked No. 4 nationally within the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a greatest time of 8:31.19 and makes his second journey to nationals. He was Eleventh on the 2019 nationwide championships earlier than missionary service. Teammate Garrett Marsing, from Value’s Carbon Excessive, additionally made nationals within the steeplechase after coming back from a mission to Moscow, Russia.
“Rooks and Marsing may each make the finals, and rating factors for us,” Robison stated.
Vorkink, a junior from Kirksville, Missouri, was seventeenth within the decathlon final 12 months and ranks No. 11 nationally with a personal-best complete of seven,894 factors.
Casey Clinger and Brandon Garnica will compete within the 10,000 meters for the Cougars, and Clinger may even run within the 5,000 meters occasion. He’s ranked No. 8 nationally within the 5,000 meters with a time of 13:23.33, and can attempt to match the feat that coach Eyestone did in 1985 when he gained each the 5,000 and 10,000 nationwide titles.
Colten Yardley, a senior from Syracuse Excessive in Davis County, will compete within the 400 hurdles for the third time at nationals and in addition anchor the lads’s 4x100 relay squad, joined by Easton Bianchi, Jared Davis and Dallin Draper.
“Yardley is working quicker this 12 months than he did final 12 months, so he’s obtained a shot to make the finals,” Robison stated. “On the lads’s aspect, all these guys have very, excellent possibilities of scoring, however the wow, the competitors is phenomenal. Our 4x100 relay staff goes to must have a tremendous (preliminary) race to make the highest eight. That (occasion) is stacked.”
Michael Whitaker, a freshman from Spanish Fork, will compete for BYU within the javelin.
Can BYU girls publish one other top-10 end?
BYU’s greatest probabilities for nationwide particular person champions are a pair of girls, Courtney Wayment within the 3,000-meter steeplechase and Ashton Riner within the javelin. Each had been tops of their respective occasions in Arkansas.
BYU javelin thrower Ashton Riner prepares to throw through the NCAA Championship West Preliminary Meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas, final month.
Nate Edwards, BYU Picture
Wayment dominated the steeplechase, ending with a time of 9:42.32, 5 seconds in entrance of the second-place finisher.
“Courtney Wayment has run a lot quicker than anyone else within the nation this 12 months,” Robison stated. “She is unquestionably, positively the favourite within the steeplechase.” Lexy Halladay of Boise, Idaho, was tenth in Arkansas to qualify within the steeplechase as effectively.
Riner, a junior from Connell, Washington, and teammate Alex McAllister will characterize the Cougars within the javelin, with former BYU standout thrower Niklas Arrhenius as their coach. Riner threw a 57.25 meters to win by practically 8 toes at Fayetteville.
Sable Lohmeier El-Bakri set the BYU document within the discus with a throw of 56.13 meters to qualify, putting seventh at regionals. She’s married to former BYU soccer star Bracken El-Bakri.
“Nik is doing an amazing job with our throwers,” Robison stated.
Aubrey Frentheway of Cheyenne, Wyoming, certified within the 10,000 meters with an Eleventh-place end at regionals.
Cierra Tidwell-Allphin, no relation to former BYU soccer coach Paul Tidwell, tied for first with 5 different athletes within the excessive soar to qualify (1.81m).
Claire Seymour of Modesto, California, ran a 2:03.01 to make it within the 800 meters.
The aforementioned Folsom-Walker, from Medford, Oregon, posted a personal-best rating of 5,699 within the heptathlon in April, the 14th-best rating nationally this season. Folsom-Walker, whose brother Ryan Folsom performed soccer for BYU and tragically died in a head-on crash close to Redding, California, in 2018, is again after serving a mission in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
“Folsom-Walker needs to be within the high 10 within the heptathlon,” Robison stated. “She’s having an incredible season.”
Having enjoyable at Hayward Area
No matter occurs, Robison stated the 22 athletes and 6 coaches from BYU and the seven contestants from the state’s different Division I faculties will always remember competing in one of many premier observe and area venues on the planet. Hayward Area was reconstructed in 2018 and is state-of-the-art in each method.
“It's a tremendous place, an outstanding facility, by far the very best there's, particularly with the seating,” Robison stated. “A lot of the athletes have already competed there, however those who haven’t are in for a giant deal with.”
When BYU competed there in early Might, temperatures by no means obtained out of the 50s and it was windy and wet as effectively. Extra of the identical is predicted this week, with barely increased temperatures.
“For us, that type of climate just isn't a giant deal,” Robison stated. “In case you are from the southern faculties and locations which have nice climate on a regular basis, it's a issue. Some folks virtually freeze to dying once they get to Eugene.”
The horseshoe-shaped stadium can get “fascinating” if the wind is blowing in a sure path, he stated.
“Pole vaulting might be an absolute nightmare,” Robison stated. “Each single vault, it's a totally different wind. You've simply gotta make changes. Man, it's a loopy, great place.”
Observe occasions might be televised on ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN (Saturday afternoon solely), whereas area occasions might be streamed on ESPN3.
BYU’s 22 athletes at NCAA Observe and Area Nationals
Males’s occasion qualifiers
• Dallin Vorkink, decathlon.
• Zach McWhorter, pole vault.
• Caleb Witsken, pole vault.
• Garrett Marsing, 3000-meter steeplechase.
• Kenneth Rooks, 3000-meter steeplechase.
• Michael Whittaker, javelin.
• Sebastian Fernandez, 800 meters.
• Colten Yardley, 400-meter hurdles.
• Casey Clinger, 10,000 meters.
• Brandon Garnica, 10,000 meters.
• Males’s 4x100 relay: Easton Bianchi, Jared Davis, Dallin Draper, Colten Yardley.
Ladies’s occasion qualifiers
• Halley Folsom-Walker, heptathlon
• Lexy Halladay, 3000-meter steeplechase.
• Courtney Wayment, 3000-meter steeplechase.
• Alex McAllister, javelin.
• Ashton Riner, javelin.
• Claire Seymour, 800 meters.
• Aubrey Frentheway, 10,000 meters.
• Cierra Tidwell-Allphin, excessive soar.
• Sable Lohmeier-Bakri, discus.
BYU athletes compete within the NCAA Championship West Preliminary Meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Nate Edwards, BYU Picture