Five members of the BYU Cougars men’s track and field team reached the podium and two advanced to finals on May 15 during the second day of the Big 12 Championships at Drachman Stadium in Tucson, Arizona.
The results highlight a strong showing for BYU as Mark Bryant and Tyler Poole placed fourth and sixth in shot put, earning eight team points. Bryant, a freshman, set a personal best with a throw of 17.71 meters while Poole recorded a mark of 17.54 meters.
In distance events, Garrett Stanford finished fifth in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 8:43.42, closely followed by Jefferson McMullin in sixth at 8:43.97 and Max Davis in eighth at 8:47.26. Carter Cutting won his heat in the preliminaries for the men’s 800-meter race with a time of 1:47.97—one of the seven fastest times—and will compete again after also qualifying for finals in the men’s 1500-meter event earlier this week.
Garrett Copelin advanced to Saturday’s final round in the men’s 110-meter hurdles after posting a time of 13.97 seconds to take ninth overall among preliminary competitors. Both Cutting and Copelin are scheduled to compete for titles on May 16.
Other Cougar athletes also contributed solid performances throughout Friday’s events. Kaden Passey completed his decathlon campaign finishing ninth overall with notable placements including first place in discus (45.98m) and second place in the decathlon’s final event—the men’s 1500-meters (4:25.65). Multi-event athletes Ben Barton and Jayden Jessee participated across long jump and hurdles while several others represented BYU across sprints, pole vaults, and distance races.
At day’s end, BYU stood sixth as a team with an overall score of thirty-two points heading into Saturday’s concluding competition at Drachman Stadium.
