April 15, 2011

WALNUT, Calif. - Competing in an event billed as a place "Where the World's Top Athletes Compete," the Wyoming track student-athletes showed up in a big way Friday.

While complete results from Walnut weren't available as of press time Friday evening, the Mt. SAC Relays began Thursday and three Wyoming tracksters got off to a hot start.

Michael Banks was seventh in his 3,000-meter steeplechase race with a time of 9:19.12, a personal-record time which puts him No. 44 in the NCAA West region. Garrett Zans was fifth overall in the event, despite falling on the last water jump. He achieved a personal-best time of 9:00.98, good enough for eighth in the NCAA West. Greg Miller won the 10,000-meter race with a time of 29:27.77. That is seventh all-time in school history and 12th in the NCAA West.

"Greg Miller did a great job," UW distance coach Randy Cole said. "He ran the second 5K of the race by himself, really. He looked very good; it was a really great run for him. That'll put him in a fairly strong position, looking ahead to postseason qualifying."

On Friday, most of the 23 total student-athletes began competition. The women's 4-by-100-meter relay team of Erin Kirby, Chantel Bernabo, Katy Hall and Afiya Walker struggled with handoffs but still managed a time of 46.43 seconds. The foursome was eighth in the event.

The men's 4-by-100-meter relay team of Brandon Douglass, Travis Gunderson, Lenyn Leonce and Stephen Michel was 10th with a time of 41.73 seconds.

Tyler Skinner was 11th in the high jump with a mark of 6-8 ¾ and Mark Sparks finished 30th in the hammer throw with a mark of 174 feet, 8 inches. Sparks also finished 21st in the discus throw with a distance of 158-2. Leonce was 18th in the long jump, 22-9 ¾.

Maggie Ochsner was second in her section of the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.72 seconds. Hall was first in her section of the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.97. In the 110-meter hurdles, Douglass (14.87) and Michael Tasker (15.40) finished 22nd and 29th, respectively.

Candace Wollert was 35th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:11.15, while Diana Long was 12th in the 400-meter hurdles, 1:00.95.

Competition will continue at the Mt. SAC Relays on Saturday, and another group of UW tracksters will compete Saturday in the CSU-Pueblo Invitational in Pueblo, Colo.