Wyoming track & field set for 2022 Mountain West Indoor Champions

* University of Wyoming Athletics media relations release

LARAMIE -- The University of Wyoming Track & Field teams are set to compete at the 2022 Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., hosted by the University of New Mexico on Thursday Feb. 24 through Saturday Feb. 26.

The meet is slated to get started with the first four events of the men’s Heptathlon at 10 am on Thursday. Cowboys will compete in the 60M, the Long Jump, Shot Put, and High Jump before finishing up the Heptathlon on Friday at 10 am with the 60M Hurdles, Pole Vault, and 1000M. The men’s and women’s Distance Medley will also be ran on Thursday to conclude the first day of competition.

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Sage Coventry and Bryson Engebretsen will lead the way for the Cowboys in the Heptathlon. After competing in the event at the Power Meet Coventry ranks fifth in the league while Engebretsen ranks sixth.

Finishing with 4,995 points, Coventry ran a 6.75 in the 55M dash, went 22-05 in the Long Jump, threw 41-11.25 in the Shot Put and went 6-8.25 in the High Jump. On day two Coventry went 8.09 in the 55M Hurdles, 10-10 in the Pole Vault and a 2:59.32 in the 1000M run.

Entering the second day of the Power Meet, Engebretsen was in fifth place but competed well on day two and had the best day of any student athlete on the day accumulating 2,265 points to finish up in 2nd place with 4,880 total points over both days. He went 6.87 in the 55M dash, 21-9.5 in the Long Jump, 35-06 in the Shot Put, 5-9.75 in the High Jump, 8.00 in the 55M Hurdles, 14-9 in the Pole Vault and went 2:59.32 in the 1000M run.

Field events will get started on Friday at 12:30PM with the men’s Weight Throw and the women’s Long Jump at 1 pm, to be followed up by the qualifying portion of the women’s and men’s Mile at 1:30 pm and 1:45 pm respectively to get things going on the track.

A full slate of events to follow with the day finishing up with the men’s 5000M at 4:55 pm. A full schedule can be found at GoWyo.com

Wyoming athletes Shayla Howell and Hunter Brown head into the Championships with the No. 1 mark in the Mountain West in the Long Jump.

Howell, who broke the all-time record at UW earlier this season, brings her 20-7.25 mark set in Albuquerque two weeks ago at the Don Kirby Invite to the rest of the competition. Brown’s standard of 24-3 this season set on Jan. 21 at the Prairie Wolf Invitational is the mark to beat heading into Friday.

Sadie McMullen’s best performance of the season came at the Power Meet in Laramie back on Dec. 10. McMullen’s mark from the first meet of the year ranks fourth in the league.

The names to watch for Wyoming in the Weight Throw are Daniel Carrillo and Mary Carbee. Carrillo ranks third in the league with his mark of 59-5.5 set at the Power Meet and Carbee heads in to the competition at sixth with her mark 59-9.5 notched at the Mark Colligan Memorial on Jan. 22.

The final day of competition on Saturday begins with the men’s High Jump at 9:30 am and the finals of the men’s and women’s Mile at 11:10 am. All finals event will be run on the track with the exception of the 5000M which will be run on Friday. Saturday will also see the Shot Put, Pole Vault, and Triple Jump champions crowned.

Katelyn Mitchem and Oisin O'Gailin will highlight the Mile for the Pokes in New Mexico. Mitchem and O'Gailin both set the new standard for Wyoming at the Colorado Invitational on Jan. 29.

Mitchem ran a time of 4:39.38 for a second place finish while O'Gailin ran a 4:00.41 to finish fourth. Mitchem took down Molly Mouton's record that had stood alone at the top in the Wyoming record books since 1998 with O'Gailin breaking Mike Cherono's record that held the top stop on the men's side since 1978. Mitchem enters the meet with the third fastest time in the league this season while O'Gailin sits at No. 7.

Freshman Carter Wilkerson has ran the fastest time of any Cowboy this season with a 6.90 adjusted time in the 60M dash after competing in the 55M event at the Power Meet in December. Wilkerson ranks fourth amongst the men in the Mountain West.

On Saturday, Addison Henry and Aumni Ashby both rank in sixth amongst the women in the league in their respective events. Henry in the Shot Put with her mark of 48-8.25 at the 2022 Husky Classic on Feb. 11 and Ashby at 40-2.25 in the Triple Jump with her mark set at the Invitational at the Peak on Feb. 4.

Fans will be able to follow along with live stats and watch the event live on TheMW.com or by following along @Wyo_track on Twitter.