A Weekend for the Record Books

The final day of the Drake Relays ended as it began...with new personal bests and three more top five finishes. Warm temperatures and blue skies brought unfamiliar warmth to a track season that has been filled with less than ideal conditions otherwise.

Lucy Yates took the Utes from eighth to fifth on her anchor carry in the sprint medley relay with a 2:07 leg. Defending 1500 meter champion Alyssa Abbott and Amanda Mergaert (4th a year ago) then went 2-3 in that even this year. Both broke the 29 year old school record of 4:22.03 (Carla Pittlekow). Abbott's time (4:19.73) was the 3rd fastest ever at the Drake Relays while Mergaert's (4:21.06) was the 7th fastest ever in event history. Event winner Stephanie Morgan of Illinios broke the 20 year old Drake Relays record (4:19.53) with her 4:15.00 clocking.

If your going to get beat, make them break the record and that is exactly what happen.

For the week the Utes were able to score six top five finishes including one champion, two runner ups, and two third placers.

Not too many teams have ever come and had the type of success we experienced at the Drake Relays this past weekend. Our gals competed hard and showed a toughness that this program is beginning to be known for. I will admit...it was impressive. We fought for every place we could get.

Former Ute Shayla Houlihan (shown above in picture) dominated the women's steeplechase to collect consecutive victories in that event as well.

1-2-3 Recipe

~Alyssa is all smiles as she anchors the D-Med to a Drake title.

~Bree and Langley celebrated a successful 2011 Drake Relays.

The 2010 Drake Relays featured a little bit of everything. Utah had it's first ever individual champion as Alyssa Abbott won the 1500 meter run near the end of the meet on Saturday afternoon. There was a near miss at a second champion in the rain on Friday as Langley Iverson was second in the high jump. Freshman Amanda Mergaert was fourth in the 1500 just off the pace set by Abbott. Then there was multi eventer, Bree LeRoy who fell going over the ninth hurdle in the first event of the heptathlon and went on to finish 12th of the 13 finishers. A few solid relay finishers were sprinkled in the middle.

Drake Relays History Lesson
With ABC Television celebrating 50 years of The Wide World of Sports on April 29th this year the sport of track and field and the Drake Relays come to the forefront again. Wide World was a weekly Saturday afternoon program that featured sporting events from all over the world. Boxing, soccer, bull riding, car racing, bowling, etc were among the many sports that were featured on a regular basis. However, the very first event televised on WWS was the 1961 Drake Relays. Track & Field events all over the world (especially those that featured the US vs Russia) also became a staple of the WWS line up each year.

Present Day
Fast forward to 2011 and this year's annual Drake Relays...the 102nd edition of America's Athletic Classic...one of premier track and field meets held in the world.

~The week started with LeRoy gaining redemption in the multi event as she was the day one leader and ended up second overall with a new lifetime best score of 5,090 (her first time over 5000 points).

~Iverson followed up last years runner up performance with a third place finish this year despite clearing a bar three inches higher.

~The University of Utah crowned it's first ever relay championship at the Drake Relays as the Distance Medley relay team of Amanda Mergaert, Ashley Mosley, Lucy Yates, and Alyssa Abbott ran 11:17.09 to run away from the field.

One more day to go. What's next? Stay tuned and check back tomorrow for more results.

A New Report...

This is my first attempt at producing a video so don't make fun of it too bad. It only took two hours for two minutes of video. Enjoy!

Home and Away

This weeks picture comes from Edwards Stadium at the University of California.

This past weekend we had most of our team at BYU for the annual Robison Invitational. We also sent two athletes to the Brutus Hamilton Invite hosted by Cal. Angie Kaplar highlighted the performances at BYU by breaking her own school record in the sprint hurdle race )13.83 to win that event. At Cal it was Amanda Mergaert who came up a winner in the 800 meter race with a new personal best time of 2:07.38. That time also ranks third in Utah school history.

Other top performances included:

Alyssa Abbott-1500m, 4:23.83, 3rd at Cal
Bree Leroy-100m hurdles, 14.42, PR (seventh all time at Utah) and Javelin-117-4.75 (tenth all time)
Alana Nulph, Nikkie Rudder, Candus Aiello, and Destanae Howerton-Davis going 1-2-3-4 in the shot put.
Candus Aiello-Discus, 143-4.5 PR
Lucy Yates-400m, 56.66 PR

We had several other athletes compete hard and continue to improve. We will send athletes to the 102nd annual Drake Relays and the Steve Scott Invitational this coming weekend.

23 Years Later....

Our 5K record had stood for 23 years until senior, Alyssa Abbott, put her name on top of the list with her 16:17.86 performance at the 53rd Annual Mt Sac Relays this past weekend. That was one of several outstanding performances for our team this weekend.

Bree Leroy set a new PR in the high jump when she cleared 5-8.75.

Amanda Mergaert just missed the school record in the 1500 with her 4:23.51 lifetime best mark. Lucy Yates also set a big PR in the 1500 running 4:26.47 as they won back to back heats. Both would come back four hours later and record 2:09 in the 800 as well.

Angie Kaplar ran a season best mark of 13.91 at the Cal State LA meet on Thursday evening.

Based on last years qualifying marks all of these marks will get into the NCAA First Round competition.

Other outstanding performances came from a pair of freshmen. Rebekah Winterton clocked the seventh fastest time in school history in the 10K (36:05). Rosalie Griffin ran a pair of 400 meter hurdle races at Cal State LA and Long Beach and improved her personal best a full second each time. She ran 62.54 on Saturday.

Candus Aiello had a big weekend in the shot and discus. She scored PR's in both (46-2 and 142) to lead the way for the throwers who all had improvements and/or were very consistent in their multiple competitions at the three meets in the LA area.

At the Mark Faldmo Invitational hosted by Utah State, Alexis Laws ran her first steeplechase race and finished second in 11:22.19.

After missing a weekend competition due to poor weather a week ago our team was in need of a great weekend like this one. We will be back in action at the Robison Invitational hosted by BYU next weekend.

One More Year...

We've had to wait almost 30 years, so what is one more? It's been almost that long since a track and field meet has been hosted on campus at the University of Utah. That "streak" was set to end yesterday, however, mother nature decided that it wasn't quite time. A huge spring storm pushed through Utah this weekend and brought winter like conditions with it dumping 3-4 inches of snow on campus. We were clearing the track and making preparations, however the other teams didn't feel like it was worth making the trip to compete in the snowy/rainy conditions. It's hard to blame them as we all have to protect our athletes and do what we think is right for their development and well being.

While we would have liked to host this meet, the weather conditions around the country weren't much better. It was raining in Phoenix, the winds were blowing at the Texas Relays (20+ mph), and the same weather we had on Friday continued on Saturday down at UVU.

We head to the Mt Sac Relays this coming week. It's a huge annual meet that is known for great competition and excellent weather. We need both! I give our team a ton of credit. They were very disappointed to not be able to compete on their new home facility. I think they were mentally prepared to deal with the conditions which says a great deal about their character and competitiveness. We will simulate some race conditions in our practices this weekend and refocus towards our trip this coming week.

Steady Progress All Around

All in all it was another productive weekend for our team. Junior Bree LeRoy went to Tucson, AZ to compete in her first multi event of the season which resulted in a 200 point PR. At the UVU Invite we won two events and had several other high place finishes in what turned out to be the first real nice day of the spring thus far.

Junior Langley Iverson won the high jump (5-7.25) and sophomore Angela Kaplar won the 100m hurdles with a season best time (13.99). Officially, we went 2-3-4 in the shot put. However, newcomer Alana Nulph who is red shirted for the outdoor season was the winner. In the discus we had three plus Nulph in the finals and went 3-4-5-8.

Sophomore Alyssa Johnson led a 2-3-4 finish in the 400m hurdles. Freshmen Kayla McMurray and Rosalie Griffin (and Johnson) all set personal best marks.

True freshmen Alexis Laws, Rebekah Winterton, and AuraLea Fain also had solid 1500m races with all three setting new PR's and finishing 3-4-10.

Sophomore Lauryn McKay (25.66) was fifth in the 200m dash. Check out Kaplar's victory in the 100 m hurdles by playing the video.

We host the inaugural home meet at our new facility (McCarthey Family Track & Field) this coming Friday. We will have teams from primarily Utah attending and look forward to an excellent meet. Hope to see you there.