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DES MOINES, Iowa – Jared Ward and Alden Bahr capped a successful first day at the 2012 NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships by earning All-America honors in the 10,000 meters on Jim Duncan Track at Drake Stadium.
“It was a very good first day,” BYU men’s coach Mark Robison said. “Jared (Ward) was unbelievable and Alden (Bahr) also ran extremely well. Neither was ranked very high coming into the meet. They really stepped up and ran great races.”
Ward, a sophomore, entered the meet ranked 32nd in the country in the 10,000 meters and finished with a time of 28:59.74, besting his previous personal record by more than 14 seconds. His fifth-place finish earned BYU four points and garnered the Kaysville, Utah, native first-team All-America honors.
Bahr finished his BYU career with a 10th-place finish (29:21.64) in the 10,000 meters to earn second-team All-America status.
Senior Chris Carter (400 meter hurdles) and junior Ryan Waite (800 meters) also competed on Wednesday in preliminaries in their respective events. Carter clocked a season-best time of 50.08 in the 400 meter hurdles and advanced to the finals on Friday.
Waite ran a strong race and finished with a time of 1:49.09 to take 18th in the preliminary round. He did not advance to the final.
“(Chris) Carter ran one of the fastest times of his life and did extremely well,” Robison said. “Chris has dealt with a lot of injuries since his freshman year. He has overcome a lot and is running very well right now. Even though he didn’t qualify, Ryan (Waite) ran a great race today.”
Miles Batty and the 4x400 team will compete in their respective preliminaries on Thursday. Batty will run the 1,500 meter at 6:15 p.m. CT while the 4x400 meter relay team (Chris Carter, Jason Hinds, Shaquille Walker and Cade Lindahl) will run at 8:05 p.m. CT. The finals for each event will be held on Saturday. ESPN3.com will stream all the action from Thursday, Friday and Saturday live.
Kyle Chilton is the director of media relations for BYU men's basketball. He can be reached at 801-422-4909, kyle_chilton@byu.edu or on Twitter @kylechilton.
