Day 1 of the NCAA West Preliminaries track and field meet hit and miss for BYU

BYU picked up nine points in the throwing events on the first day of the NCAA West Preliminaries track and field meet Wednesday to offset a poor showing in the day’s only distance race.

The Cougars scored with a fourth-place finish by Danny Bryant in the shot put (with a throw of 63 feet, 7 3/4 inches) and a fifth-place finish by Cameron Bates in the javelin (236 feet, 10 inches).

The top eight finishers in each event are scored in the team race.

In the 10,000-meter run, the lone final on the track Wednesday, BYU failed to score in what is traditionally a strong event for the school. Utah State’s Camren Todd, a junior from Kaysville, was the state’s top finisher, placing 27th with a time of 29:43.02 in a crowded 48-man field.

Utah State’s Logan Hammer, a sophomore pole vaulter from Nampa, Idaho, finished eighth in Wednesday’s final, clearing 17 feet, 9 1/4 inches. He was ranked second heading into the meet, with a school record mark of 18-5 1/4.

Most of Wednesday’s competition consisted of first-round competition to determine qualifiers for Friday’s quarterfinals. The top 12 finishers in the West and East Preliminaries, which are being held simultaneously in different cities, will advance to the NCAA championships, which will be held June 5-8 in Eugene, Oregon.

BYU’s Lucas Bons, a junior All-American, had the eighth fastest time in the first round of the 1,500-meter run to advance to the next round. His time: 3:41.17.

BYU’s Sebastian Fernandez and Utah State’s Landon Bott advanced out of Wednesday’s first round of the 800-meter run. Fernandez had the seventh fastest time — a personal-record 1:48.00, the second fastest in school history — and Bott had the 17th fastest time, 1:48.40. Bott is a freshman who competed in the 400-meter dash and 800-meter run at Woods Cross High in 2021.

Riley Hunt, who transferred to BYU from Cal, set a school record of 13.70 in the first round of the 110-meter high hurdles, but it was only the day’s 21st fastest time and he failed to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals. He broke a record set by Rafael Echavarria in 1979.

The women take the stage tomorrow, followed by the men’s quarterfinal competition Friday and the women’s quarterfinal competition Saturday.