San Diego Track Roundup : BYU Wins WAC Title; Aztecs 3rd

The San Diego State men’s track and field team finished third in Saturday’s Western Athletic Conference championships at El Paso. Brigham Young took its third straight championship, wrapping up the title with 10 events remaining en route to the most lopsided victory in the meet’s 25-year history.

BYU scored in 18 of 21 events to win the meet at Kidd Field with 214 points. New Mexico was a distant second at 117. San Diego State had 102, followed by Colorado State (63).

Brigham Young’s total was the highest since Texas El Paso scored 223 points at El Paso in 1978, and it was the most lopsided victory since UTEP beat San Diego State by 85 points at El Paso in 1982.

Malcom Hunsaker cleared 16-feet 6-inches to win the pole vault, in which BYU scored 21 points.

Floyd Barco was the only San Diego State athlete to win Saturday, capturing the 400-meter run in 47.16 seconds. Luke Brugnars of SDSU was third in the 400 meters in 47.82.

SDSU’s Darryl Hudson finished third in the 100 and 200 meters. Hudson ran 10.56 in the 100 and 21.50 in the 200. Gabriel Okon of New Mexico won both sprintevents.

Aztec Greg Dowd finished second in the 400-meter hurdles in 53.26, and Jim Cody was third in the high jump with a leap of 6-11.

The Aztecs’ 400-meter relay team was second behind BYU.

Margaret Hemmons and Sonya Smith of San Diego State qualified for next month’s NCAA Championships at Baton Rouge, La., in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. women’s track championships at UC Irvine.

Hemmons, a senior, won the 400-meter hurdles in 58.53 seconds, and Smith, also a senior, placed second in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.57.

Led by Hemmons and Smith, San Diego State finished in a tie for third place in the team competition with UC Irvine. SDSU had 92 points. Fresno State won the championship with 159 points, ahead of Nevada Las Vegas (127).

Phil Williams won the 200-meter run and finished second in the 110-meter hurdles to lead Point Loma Nazarene College to a third-place finish in the NAIA District III men’s track championships at Azusa Pacific. Azusa Pacific, the defending national champion, won the title with 238 points. Cal Lutheran was second and Point Loma Nazarene (121) was third.

In the women’s NAIA District III event, Point Loma (110 points) finished second behind Azusa Pacific (177). Connie Navarro was Point Loma’s top performer, finishing first in the javelin (103-1), first in the high jump (5-4) and third in the long jump (16-2 1/2).