John places fourth in hammer

Petsch concludes decathlon with seventh-place finish

By Wyoming Sports.org

FORT WORTH, Texas -- The Wyoming Cowboys track and field team got on the scoreboard with a couple of placings in the second day of the Mountain West Conference Championships at the Lowdon Track Complex.

Sophomore Jay Petsch, who was in fifth place after day one of the decathlon, slipped to seventh in the final rankings. Petsch was ranked seventh in the conference coming into this weekend, set a new personal best with a total of 6,092 points. He also set a new personal best in the pole vault with a height of 12-feet, 3 inches. Justin Palmer of BYU took the title with a total of 7,054 points.
"Jay (Petsch) gained some much needed experience this weekend that will help with his future decathlons," UW assistant coach Quincy Howe said. "All in all, I was very impressed with the way he performed and competed today."

Also for the Cowboys on Thursday, freshman Alan John finished fourth in the hammer throw at 177-6. John is a regional qualifier and had the fourth best throw in the conference going into the meet at 190-0.

"A really good performance for a freshman," UW assistant coach Paul Barrett said. "The distances were down as a whole today, but that is pretty common for conference."

Day three on Friday will bring finals for many field events and mostly qualifying for the running events.