It was another record shattering night for our Distance Medley Relay team as they ran 11:13 to crush our school record set a week ago at the conference championships. That time also provisionally qualified them for the upcoming NCAA Indoor championship meet. Two freshman (Amanda Mergaert-1200, Alyssa Johnson-400), sophomore (Lucy Yates-800) and junior (Alyssa Abbott-1600) took 15 seconds off of the school record that was set only a week ago. Mergaert-3:27, Johnson-54.8, Yates-2:06.8, and Abbott-4:44 all ran lifetime bests to combine for fifth place overall and the 12th best time in the country this year. The final day for all teams to qualify is Sunday. There are two teams who will be running on Sunday who could spoil our trip to the NCAA meet. Regardless....I couldn't be prouder of our group. They all ran personal bests at the same time which is really hard to do.
Mergaert PR'd by five seconds in the 1200 and put us in second place at the first exchange. Johnson ran a very controlled race and finished well. Yates took the stick in fifth and ran 2:06 and put us in second place at the final exchange. Abbott's training was more geared for the 3K this year. (She just won the 3K at the conference meet). However, she is still a really solid miler and gave us a seven second lifetime best (4:44). Her finish was really critical as she almost caught the fourth place team and put us in the same second (:13) rather than (:14-:15) which keeps us in the conversation as a possible qualifier. We did all that we can do. If the other teams beat us...so be it. We ran our guts out and we have everything to be proud of with that effort.
You should have seen the texts I received from current team members and former Utes right after the race. The race was show live on flotrack. Go to the following link to see a replay:
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236661/313440
What a great day to be a Ute! Hopefully, we'll get to represent Ute Nation at the NCAA championships!
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