LARAMIE – Fresh off a successful indoor season, the University of Wyoming men’s and women’s track and field teams start the outdoor portion of their 2015-16 campaign at Colorado State’s Fum McGraw Quadrangular on Friday in Fort Collins, Colo.
Wyoming squares off with the host Rams, Northern Colorado and Colorado at Jack Christiansen Track with running and field events beginning at 12 p.m. MT. The meet was originally scheduled for Saturday, but moved up due to forecasted inclement weather. Snow also cancelled Wyoming’s plans to open the outdoor season at Colorado’s Jerry Quiller Classic last Saturday.
Junior Jordan Charles concluded Wyoming’s indoor season at the NCAA Championships on March 11. Charles entered the meet with 12th-fastest time in the nation and, true to form, finished 12th with a time of 7.85 seconds to earn All-America accolades.
The last team competition was the Mountain West Indoor Championships on Feb. 27, where the Cowgirls and the Cowboys both placed fifth. The programs combined for 18 all-time top-10 performances at the meet, thanks to five individual events titles and 13 All-MW honors.
“I feel like we’ve been working hard the last three weeks since the MW indoor meet. I think there were some things from the indoor season we needed to improve upon. As coaches, I think we’ve worked on those with the student-athletes. Now we get to a point where it’s another opportunity for them to go out there and prove it during a competition.” – UW Head Coach Bryan Berryhill.
Last Time Out: Charles Earns All-America Honors at NCAA
Wyoming’s Jordan Charles ran 7.85 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on March 11 to earn Honorable Mention All-American and become the first Cowboy hurdler ever to earn the accolade indoors or outdoors. Charles’ time placed him 12th in the 16-man field at the Birmingham CrossPlex, but did not advance him to the final.
“It’s big for us for Jordan to All-American,” UW head coach Bryan Berryhill said. “It’s a goal of ours every year to get to the national championships and produce All-Americans. Coach [Shaun] Meinecke and Jordan had a plan to get him here all year and they executed it and he ran a good race today.”
Charles, a junior, was sixth of the eight runners in his heat. The top two from each heat and the next four fastest times advanced, as he missed the cut by eight hundredths of a second. He entered the meet ranked 12th in the event after running a time of 7.72 during the season.
Charles is the 60th Cowboy All-American between Wyoming’s cross country and track and field programs, including the 30th at the NCAA Indoor Championships. He is the first Cowboy to claim the honor indoors since Mason Finley in the shot put in 2014 and first in a track event indoors since Mark Korir in the 5,000 meters in 2008. Wyoming previously had never had a male All-American in a hurdle event at the indoor or outdoor NCAA Championships.
Rewriting Wyoming’s All-Time Top 10
Wyoming had a whopping 18 all-time top-10 performances at the MW Indoor Championships on Feb. 25-27. The top performance for the Cowgirls was a school-record time of 11:21.19 in the distance medley relay by junior Cassidy Meade, junior Audra DeStefano, sophomore Lauren Hamilton and sophomore Kim Robertson. The time broke the program’s previous best by over 30 seconds.
For the Cowboys, senior Aaron Derner ran the fourth-fastest 5,000 meters in school history with a time of 14:21.54. The current Cowboy roster owns 13 individual top-10 marks in Wyoming’s outdoor history, while the current Cowgirls have 12. UW has 67 entrees between the two programs and the two seasons.
Track & Field Earns 13 All-MW Honors
The University of Wyoming men’s and women’s track and field teams collected 13 All-Mountain West honors when the league office announced the all-conference teams on March 1. The 13 honors are the most the Cowboys and Cowgirls have won indoors since 15 in 2008. All-conference selections were awarded to the top-three finishers in each event at last weekend’s MW Indoor Championships.
Junior Audra DeStefano highlighted the eight honors for the Cowgirls with her fourth and fifth All-MW awards. She was a member of Wyoming’s distance medley relay that finished third and ran 11:31.66 to break the school record by 25 seconds, while individually she placed third in the 5,000 meters in a personal-best 16:35.84 to move up to second in UW history.
Sophomore Kim Robertson was also a member of the DMR to earn her second all-conference accolade, while junior Cassidy Meade and sophomore Lauren Hamilton earned their first nod for All-MW as members of the relay. Freshmen Emelda Malm-Annan and Ja’la Henderson won events to nab their first all-conference awards. Malm-Annan topped the field in the weight throw with a toss of 62-10 1/2, while Henderson was first in the long jump with a leap of 19-4 3/4. Redshirt freshman Jerayah Davis was runner-up in the 60 meters for All-MW.
Senior Scott Carter garnered two of the five accolades for the Cowboys for the third and fourth of his career. He notched a personal-best 51-8 1/2 to win the triple jump and move up to fifth in Wyoming history in the event, while also placing third in the long jump at 23-10 3/4.
Junior Jordan Charles was runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.89 for his fourth All-MW accolade. Senior Tyler Anderson and sophomore Ricky Faure both earned All-MW for the third time. Anderson won the weight throw in 63-6 1/4 and Faure was third in the 800 at 1:50.91.
Head coach Bryan Berryhill has guided the Cowboys and Cowgirls to 37 All-MW indoor honors during his four seasons at the helm for Wyoming.
The Final Indoor Rankings
Two Cowboys and two Cowgirls ranked in the final NCAA’s top 50 of an event. Junior Jordan Charles was the top Cowboy at No. 12 in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.72, while senior Scott Carter was No. 34 in the triple jump at 51-8 3/4. Redshirt freshman Jerayah Davis was the top Cowgirl at No. 43 in the 60 meters in 7.38, while freshman Emelda Malm-Annan was No. 46 in the weight throw with a toss of 64-3 1/4. Wyoming also lead the Mountain West in four individual events, including all four athletes previously mentioned. Teamwise, the final USTFCCCA indoor regional rankings had the Cowgirls seventh and the Cowboys ninth in the Mountain.
Next Up
The majority of Wyoming’s student-athletes will compete at the Tom Benich Invite on April 2 in Greeley, Colo., while a select group will travel to the Stanford Invite in Palo Alto, Calif.