May 13, 2002

LOGAN, Utah - Brett Guymon, Joel Johnson and Shae Bair are among several Utah State track athletes that should lead the team at the Big West Track and Field Championships at Irvine, Calif. May 15-18.

The Aggies will be looking to continue their success at the league meet as last year both the men and women's teams finished second to Idaho. The USU women have posted back-to-back runner-up finishes after winning the league title seven straight times from 1993-1999. The Aggie men, who were third in 2000 after posting five league titles and two runner-up finishes in the previous seven years, have now finished first or second in eight of the last nine seasons.

USU has two individuals, who won three events at the league championships last year and are set to defend this season. Anthony Stewart won the 200-meters last year with a time of 21.21. This year his best time has been 21.74.

Brett Guymon, who won league titles in both the 110-meter hurdles (14:30) and 400-meter hurdles (50.68) a year ago, should battle for those championships again this year. Guymon has fared well in those two events at the league championships as he won the 400-hurdles in both 2000 and 2001 and finished fifth 1999. Guymon won the 110-hurdles in 2001 after finishing as the runner-up in 2000.

Guymon owns the nation's third-best 400-meter hurdles time this season at 49.57 and is an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, La. May 29 through June 1.

Another Aggie, who has qualified for the NCAA Championships is Joel Johnson, who owns the sixth-best decathlon score in the country this year with 7,586 points. He will compete in several events this week.

On the women's side, Shae Bair will be looking for her first league pole vault title. In 1999 she finished second at the conference meet and was sixth in 1998. She has had success at the national level, placing fourth in the NCAA Championships in that event in 2000 and is a three-time All-American.

UC Irvine is hosting the nine-team league meet. Only Pacific does not field men's and women's track teams. Competing teams include two-time defending men's champion Idaho, UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and Utah State.

The decathlon and heptathlon will take place Wednesday and Thursday with field and running events scheduled for Friday and Saturday.