The BYU Cougars women’s track and field team secured seven top-10 program marks, a win, and a runner-up finish on the first day of the Big 12 Championships at the Sports Performance Center in Lubbock, Texas. The team ended Friday in fifth place with 25 points.
The distance medley relay team—Taylor Rohatinsky, Kali McEuen, Krystie Solomon-Jensen, and Jenna Hutchins—competed together for the first time. Rohatinsky led off with a 3:29.00 in the 1200-meter leg to take an early lead. McEuen contributed splits of 25.02 and 28.70 before Solomon-Jensen completed her 800m leg in 2:10.51. Hutchins anchored with a time of 4:38.73, helping set a new facility record for the event.
Zoey Bonds achieved a personal best in the pentathlon and finished second behind Cincinnati’s Juliette Laracuente-Huebner, who is a two-time champion. Bonds led after both the 60m hurdles and high jump events and won the hurdles in a personal-best time of 8.20 seconds, tying for third-fastest in program history. Her total score of 4,239 points ranks fourth all-time at BYU and represents the highest pentathlon finish by any Cougar at these championships.
Tia Brown also posted career highs during her pentathlon debut at this meet, ranking seventh on BYU’s all-time list for the 60m hurdles (8.38) and eighth overall in pentathlon scoring (3,997 points). She ran her best time of 2:19.90 in the final event.
Nelah Roberts contributed three points to BYU’s total by finishing sixth in the women’s 5000 meters with a time of 16:09.18 after moving up from seventh place late in the race.
In field events, Cailee Faulkner tied her season high by clearing 4.20 meters (13-9¼) to secure seventh place in pole vaulting.
Freshmen Jane Hedengren and Zariel Macchia advanced to Saturday’s mile final; Hedengren won her preliminary heat with a facility-record time of 4:31.55 while Macchia placed seventh at 4:51.44.
Riley Chamberlain and Tessa Buswell both qualified for Saturday’s final round of the women’s 800 meters while setting top-10 program marks; Chamberlain ran a season-best time of 2:02.52—the fourth-fastest ever at BYU—and Buswell recorded her own best mark (2:02.92), now fifth all-time at BYU.
In sprinting events, Paje Rasmussen matched her personal best (7.25) to qualify second overall for Saturday’s final round of the women’s 60-meter dash; she also reached finals qualification for Saturday’s women’s 200 meters with her third-place finish (23.05).
Sami Oblad and Marianne Barber advanced to Saturday’s women’s finals over one lap; Oblad finished second overall with a season-best mark (51.85), while Barber took seventh place (53.08)—the third-fastest performance ever recorded by any Cougar over that distance.
Lexi Goff-Thompson moved into Saturday’s women’s final round over one kilometer after placing sixth during preliminaries (2:46.29).
Mayci Taylor will compete again on Saturday following her seventh-place qualifying run today over six hundred yards (1:19.39).
