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EUGENE, Ore. — BYU mid-distance runner Shaquille Walker finished fifth in the 800-meter run Friday at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, then helped pace the Cougars' 4x400-meter relay team to fifth place with a school-record performance.
Walker finished the 800 with a time of 1 minute, 49.26 seconds, just off his BYU-record time of 1:47.44 earlier this year, but good enough to cap his historic season with first-team All-American honors.
The sophomore from Richmond, Georgia, then helped the Cougar 4x400 team place fifth in the nation with a time of 3:05.56, setting a school record mark alongside teammates Mario Harper, Sean Adams and Jesse White.
"This week was a step forward for our program," BYU coach Ed Eyestone said in a school release. "I'm pleased with how we did and that we ended up there with some of the best teams in the country."
Also on Friday, Weber State's Mike Hardy finished fifth in the men's steeplechase with a time of 8:42.30 and BYU's Steve Flint was 10th in 8:54.80.
BYU finished 13th overall with 14 points. Oregon won the team title with 85 points, followed by Florida (56) and Arkansas (53).
In previous days appearances, BYU's Jason Witt finished the 10,000-meter run in third place nationally Wednesday with a time of 29:04.58, and Anginae Montverde set a BYU record with her sixth-place finishing pole vault of 14:01.25 on Thursday.
Utah State's Chari Hawkins broke her own school record Wednesday wtih 5,750 points in the heptathlon, finishing No. 14 overall and earning second-team All-American honors for the third-straight season.
Hawkins' previous Utah State record was 5,732 points that she racked up at the Mt. SAC Relays on April 26, which is an NCAA automatic qualifier.
