Time for a breakout time

University of Wyoming junior Bryce Ailshie is ready for a breakout performance.

So is his coach.

Both have a good feeling it could come this weekend.

Ailshie and the rest of the UW track and field teams will be in Fresno, California, today through Saturday for the Mountain West Championships. The meet starts today with the women's heptathlon and men's decathlon. The main portion of the schedule begins Friday and ends Saturday.

Ailshie's consistency in the 800-meter run helped him place fifth in last season's MW Championship as a sophomore while advancing to the NCAA West Preliminary meet both as a freshman and sophomore.

His top time in the 800 this spring came two weeks ago at UW's 7220 Invite with an altitude-adjusted time of 1 minute, 49.25 seconds. The personal record time has the Kingsport, Tennessee, native ranked third in the 800 in the conference behind Utah State's Clay Lambourne (1:47.83) and New Mexico's Michael Wilson (1:48.35) and 52nd in the nation.

"Right now, with the conference championships coming up, I'm right where I want to be," Ailshie said. "I didn't qualify for (NCAA) regionals until this past meet at home. It was my first time running in a home meet because it was snowed out the last two times. It was great to get a converted PR and solidify my spot at regionals."

Both Ailshie and UW track coach Bryan Berryhill believe that achieving the NCAA qualifying mark ahead of the conference meet should free up the junior to go for a big mark this weekend.

"I see it as a good thing that he's consistent, but he gets frustrated with it sometimes," Berryhill said. "He wants to see that big jump. But if you keep hitting those consistent marks over and over, that jump's going to happen. He's coming off some good workouts, so he's right there to have that big jump.

"I think something special is going to happen with him this weekend."

The outdoor season has been something of a do-over for Ailshie, as well.

Ailshie ran a time of 1:56.16 during preliminaries of the MW Indoor Championships and failed to advance to the finals.

He'll also have some help in the 800 this weekend.

UW junior Ricky Faure – who won the event as a freshman – is ranked just behind Ailshie in the MW standings at 1:49.71 in fourth place. And sophomore Daniel Hintz is 12th at 1:51.73.

"It helps my mentality of how to run a race," Ailshie said. "Having teammates who I train with a lot of the time and run against, it only helps each other get better every day."

Ailshie will also be part of UW's 4x400 relay team.

"My focus is solely going to be making the final and doing my best in the (4x400) relay if my name's called," He said. "The main goal is to score points for the team this weekend. Mentally and physically, I'm in a good spot."

Championship contention

Ailshie is among a host of Cowboys and Cowgirls who have their sights set on a conference title this weekend.

The UW men's team has 11 athletes ranked in the top five in individual events, while the women have five.

The leaders in the search for a title are women's junior triple jumper Ja'la Henderson and men's hammer throwers Damon and Kirk Unland.

Henderson leads the MW in triple jump by more than two feet with a top jump of 43 feet, 8½ inches. The jump ranks Henderson in a tie for 12th in the nation in the event. Henderson also enters this weekend third in long jump at 20-2½.

The Unlands have dominated hammer throw all spring.

Damon has the conference's top throw at 200-7, set at UW's 7220 Invite two weeks ago. The throw is nearly six feet ahead of Kirk's top throw of 194-0, which ranks second, and 13 feet better than the third-place toss.

Also for the Cowboys, junior Jace Marx comes in with the third-fastest 100 time at 10.63, former Cheyenne South standout William Nolan is third in triple jump at 48-1¾, and freshman Harry Ewing is third in the steeplechase at 8:52.70.

Nolan also ranks fourth in long jump (23-10¾), while Hintz is fourth in the 1,500 (3:43.20).

Junior Emelda Malm-Annan is fourth in women's hammer throw for the Cowgirls at 197-0, while senior and former Cheyenne Central standout Heidi Pfoor is fifth in the 400 hurdles (1:00.72) and fellow senior Kerry White is fifth in the 800 (2:08.37).

In the national rankings, Ewing's time in the 3,000 steeplechase ranks him 27th, while Hintz is 35th in the 1,500 and Michael Downey is 54th in the 1,500.

The top Cowgirl is Malm-Annan in 53rd place in hammer.

The NCAA West Preliminary Meet will be May 23-26 in Sacramento, California.