The BYU Cougars men’s track and field team earned two podium finishes on March 13 during the first day of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The event is significant for the BYU program as it highlights strong performances from both newcomers and experienced athletes at a national level. These results reflect the team’s depth and resilience, especially given recent health challenges faced by some competitors.
Freshman Tayvon Kitchen finished eighth in his first collegiate national championship appearance in the 5000-meter race with a time of 13:47.29, earning All-American honors for the second time in six months. Senior Creed Thompson also competed in the same event, finishing fifteenth with a time of 14:04.64 and concluding his indoor career as a second-team All-American. Director of BYU Track and Field Ed Eyestone said, “Just to make it to the national championship in the 5000m is very difficult, so to have two guys in it with Kitchen and Thompson was huge. Coming off of the Big 12 Championships both Kitchen and Thompson got the flu, so to perform as well as they did with some lingering effects of their illnesses was impressive to see.”
In other events, Carter Cutting advanced to Saturday’s mile final after placing sixth in preliminaries with a time of 3:56.72 and winning his heat. Eyestone said, “Carter won his heat after running a really smart, tactical race. The mile is all about positioning and sometimes the best guys don’t advance. So to get him advancing while looking so powerful was great. He’s definitely one of the guys to watch in the final tomorrow.” The Distance Medley Relay team—composed of Cutting, Jonah Heimuli, Brayden Packard, and Isaac Hedengren—finished sixth overall with a time of 9:25.81, outperforming their regular season ranking.
Senior Ben Barton ended day one of heptathlon competition in third place after four events with 3,414 points. He set a personal record in long jump (7.60 meters), placed fourth in the heptathlon 60-meter dash (6.88 seconds), ninth in shot put (13.04 meters), and achieved a season-best high jump (2.06 meters). Barton will complete three more events on Saturday.
Looking ahead, BYU will finish out its participation at nationals on March 14 with entries remaining in heptathlon, mile finals, and the 3000-meter run.
