PROVO — BYU has a deep and talented track and field squad this season, and it has not gone unnoticed. When coach Ed Eyestone was checking his team of 59 regional qualifiers into the official hotel at the NCAA West Preliminaries in Sacramento, California, a couple of weeks ago, a rival coach quipped, “I’m just glad there are some rooms left over for the rest of us.”
The Cougars proceeded to qualify a whopping 23 athletes for the NCAA Track and Field Championships, which get underway in Austin, Texas, this week.
The BYU men’s team, ranked fourth in the nation behind Texas Tech, Florida and LSU, is attempting to crack the top five for the 12th time in school history — the last time being 2005 — and, as usual, the Cougars will live or die with distance runners.