May 15, 2004
SAN DIEGO - The No. 17 San Diego State women's track & field squad logged its second consecutive top-two finish at the Mountain West Conference Championships Saturday, placing second overall with 160 points at Myron Partridge Stadium and Sheila Tarr Smith Field. The 18th-ranked Brigham Young Cougars won the meet in Las Vegas, Nev., with 228 points, while No. 20 Colorado State was third with 117 points.
SDSU earned all three non-coaching awards for the second straight season. Senior Nicole Ireland (Las Vegas, Nev.) repeated as the meet's high point award-winner (36.50 pts.), while classmate Tonette Dyer (Shreveport, La.) received most outstanding performance honors for her record time of 51.15 in the 400 meters. Heptathlon champion Janine Polischuk (Regina, Saskatchewan) was named the conference's freshman in the year, following in the footsteps of last season's winner, SDSU's Shanon Meyer.
Ireland claimed her fourth and fifth individual MWC career titles (most in conference history) winning the 100 (13.35) and 400 (58.94) hurdles for the second consecutive season. Ireland's time in the 100 hurdles was just off her career best of 13.30, which she ran a logged in Friday's preliminaries. The All-American also was second in the 100 meters (11.61), fifth in the triple jump (39-9.75) and seventh in the 200 meters (24.51).
Dyer, meanwhile, tallied her first two individual MWC titles, winning the 200 meters in 22.95 and breaking the school and conference record in the 400 meters in 51.15. Dyer's time in the 400 beat the previous SDSU best of 51.33, set by Renee Ross in 1985, while it is second-fastest in the world and the U.S. and the top effort by a collegian this season, according to the latest rankings.
Both Ireland and Dyer ran legs on the team's victorious 4x100 relay, combining with teammates Larnie Boyd (Vallejo, Calif.) and Heather Heron (Yakima, Wash.) to post the second-fastest time in school history of 44.45.
Other notable SDSU performances on the day went to Dyer in the 100 meters (3rd - 11.74), Boyd in the 400 (3rd - 54.11), Heron in the 100 (3rd - 13.81) and 400 hurdles (3rd - 1:01.58) and Jamillah Titus (American Canyon, Calif.) in the high jump (5th - 5-8).
SDSU takes a week off before heading to the NCAA West Regional, hosted by Cal State Northridge in Northridge, Calif., May 28-29.
2004 Mountain West Conference Track & Field Championships
UNLV - Las Vegas, Nev. - Myron Partridge Stadium and Sheila Tarr Smith Field
Final Team Scores
1. BYU 228 pts.
2. SDSU 160
3. Colorado State 117
4. Wyoming 96
5. Utah 62
6. UNLV 58
7. Air Force 50
8. New Mexico 46
SDSU History At The MWC Meet
2000 - 5th (80 pts.)
2001 - 3rd (148 pts.)
2002 - 3rd (119.33 pts.)
2003 - 1st (217 pts.)
2004 - 2nd (160 pts.)