BYU senior sprinter Jaslyn Gardner broke the 100-meter and 200m school records as the Robison Invitational concluded with Senior Day on Saturday at the Clarence F. Robison Outdoor Track & Field Complex in Provo.

Gardner first broke the 100m record at 11.22, 0.13 seconds faster than her previous best set at the 2021 Robison Invitational. Less than an hour later, the senior from Enterprise, Utah broke Mindy Neeley McClurkin’s 14-year old 200m school record by .20 seconds as she ran 23.10.

“I focused on my strengths, cues and execution plan,” said Gardner. “It felt good to finish my last time running on the home track with two personal bests and two school records my senior year. I am excited for Big 12 championships and regionals to continue to strive to accomplish more.”

Gardner now holds four individual school records at BYU: 60m, indoor 200m, 100m and outdoor 200m.

“My athletes love to run at home, and no one more than Jas,” said BYU sprints and hurdles coach Kyle Grossarth. “I was happy to see her come out and do what she is capable of in her last opportunity to run at the Clarence F. Robison track. She has had a phenomenal career and I’m excited for her as we head into conference in two weeks.”

Freshman Lainey Jones ran 11.49 in the 100m to move up to No. 3 all-time on the BYU record board and improve on her 11.68 and No. 8 all-time performance achieved in the prelims on April 26.

Alysa Keller won the javelin with her toss of 48.33m/158-6.75. Libby Parkinson placed in second behind Keller with her throw of 46.51m/152-7.

In the women’s pole vault, Rebekah Erikson took home the gold with a jump of 4.30m/14-1.25. Maren Garnett placed third with a new personal best of 4.08m/13-4.75 in her first competition of the season.

Maddie Passmore placed second in the long jump with her personal-best leap of 6.03m/19-9.5.

On the men’s side, Cougar middle-distance runner Sebastian Fernandez broke his own facility record in the 800-meter, running 1:46.77 across the finish line.

The junior from Andover, Minnesota moved to No. 4 all-time in program records with his performance. Fernandez bested his previous facility record and personal best he set nearly two years prior at 2022 Cougar Invitational.

“The race felt very relaxed and very controlled today,” said Fernandez. “At the 600-meter mark, I thought, ‘This is really going to hurt.’ I just kept digging and was able to pull it off.”

The former walk-on was joined in the heat by Olympian and 2016 gold medalist in the 1500m Matthew Centrowitz. Assistant distance coach Ryan Waite competed against Centrowitz as a student-athlete and paced him in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

“Sebastian was incredible,” said Waite. “His workouts leading up to the race went really well. The biggest thing for him was that he took confidence from those workouts and realized that there was no real difference when he went out on the track to race. It was fun to have Matthew (Centrowitz) join in because he helped the guys with their confidence. It’s great to have an athlete with such experience compete with our crew. I’m excited for Sebastian and the rest of the guys for the rest of the season.”

On the sprints side, Logan Hubler ran 14.01 in the 110m hurdles finals to take first overall and No. 7 all-time. Hubler beat his previous personal best of 14.24.

The Cougars also had individual first overall wins from Luke Grundvig in the 5000m, Dallin Shurts in the discus and Cameron Bates in the javelin throw.

Up next, the Cougars will travel to Waco, Texas for the Big 12 championships May 9-11 at the University of Baylor.

BYU baseball loses doubleheader at Oklahoma State

The BYU baseball team fell to No. 19 Oklahoma State, 11-5 and 12-5, in a doubleheader at O’Brate Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., on Friday.

In the first game, BYU scored five runs on nine hits while the Cowboys put up 11 runs on 10 hits. The Cougars got out to an early 3-0 lead and were later down one through the top of the sixth when Oklahoma State broke away with three runs in both the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings.

Two home runs in the bottom of the eighth gave the Cowboys a 11-5 victory.

Things didn’t get better for BYU in Game 2 as for the first time in the series Oklahoma State scored first taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

BYU answered with three runs in the top of the second for a 3-2 advantage. Brock Watkins got the scoring started with an infield RBI that plated Cooper Vest. One batter later, freshman outfielder Crew McChesney homered to centerfield with Ryker Schow aboard. The blast was McChesney’s first of his BYU career.

But the Cowboys responded with four runs of their own in the top half of the inning to lead 6-3, eventually pulling away to finish off the win over the Cougars.

BYU will play four non-conference games next week before returning to Big 12 play. The Cougars will host Abilene Christian at Miller Park on Monday, April 29 at 11 a.m., before heading to Miami to take on the Hurricanes, May 2-4.

Cougar softball can’t stay with Baylor on Senior Night

BYU softball fell to Baylor in five innings, 14-4 in its final home game of the 2024 season on Friday night.

After a two-run homer by senior Violet Zavodnik in the first inning, Baylor exploded by scoring six runs in the second inning and a game-altering eight more in the fourth, including a grand slam. Fourteen runs are the second-most scored by any of BYU’s opponent this season.

Following the game, BYU honored its six seniors, Macy Simmons, Huntyr Ava, Chloe Temples, Maddie Bejarano, Taryn Lennon and Zavodnik on the field in a senior night celebration.

The Cougars will travel to play at Miller Ranch Stadium for a single matchup against Idaho State on Tuesday, April 30 at 4 p.m. MDT, with live coverage on ESPN+.

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