Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Parental Control

Check out the highlight video from our meet at USC....courtesy of freshman Allison Aafedt's parents who attended the meet.  It's a family affair here at Utah Track & Field!!!

Highlights

We had another solid outing by several of our athletes.  The 2013 season is off to a great start and we are not even into April yet.  Keep checking back for more highlights and of course my weekly press conferences. 

Go Utes!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Mar 20 Presser

Due to some technical challenges with this blog host site I wasn't able to upload this weeks press conference.  However if you click HERE you will see the uncut version located on the Utah Athletics web page.  Once you bring up the page click on the multi media tab in the center of the page. 

I guess the good thing about doing it this way is that you can see the entire press conference at once rather than having to view it in multiple parts due to my blog host site only allowing 100MB or less videos per post.

Enjoy.  We're off to Southern Cal this weekend to take part in the USC Trojan Invite for the first time.  Hopefully, we'll draw some great weather and be able to post a few more good marks. 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

NCAA Recap Presser Part 1


This is the first of three parts in this weeks press conference recapping the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships held this past weekend at the University of Arkansas.  Listen to find out how senior Amanda Mergaert finished and how she felt about her experience.  I will also talk about opening up the outdoor season at San Diego State this coming weekend.  Parts two and three of this weeks press conference are posted below part one.

NCAA Recap Presser


NCAA Recap Presser


Saturday, March 9, 2013

http://www.letsrun.com/photos/2013/ncaa-indoor-friday/imagepages/image187.php

It was a battle, but would you expect anything less in an NCAA semi final?!  Amanda was patient and wrestled the field to grab the final auto qualifying spot into tonight's final.  With 200m to go she had slipped to sixth place in a race that required fourth to advance.  Then her drive and toughness came through. She moved to fifth on the backstretch before coming off the final turn and passing a runner she had never beaten on the track to capture that finals spot.  Her 800 splits (2:23/2:15) indicate the type of rough and tumble race it was.

The mile final can be viewed live at 6p CST tonight on ESPN3 on your computer.  Be sure to go to the U of Utah Facebook page (search University of Utah Track & Field) to wish her good luck.

Click on the photo link above to see just how close it was down the final 40m straightaway.

Monday, March 4, 2013

March 4th Pressor

The 2013 indoor season will come to an end this weekend at the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, AR.  For the second time in three years we have a qualifier at "the hardest NCAA championship to qualify for."  In no other sport do they take as few qualifiers (by percentage of total participants) as they do for indoor track.  Only the top 16 individuals and top 12 relays make it to the NCAA indoor meet.  That is less than 5% of the total athletes who actually qualify for the NCAA championships.

For all of her accomplishments (Cross Country All American, 3x NCAA XC qualifier, 2x Second Team All American, 6x NCAA outdoor qualifier) this will be senior, Amanda Mergaert first trip to the NCAA indoor championships.  She will compete in the mile for the final time as a Ute this weekend.  Fridays semi finals will begin at 5:30pm (CST) and the finals on Saturday will be held at 6:00pm (CST).

The last three years have seen our distance medley relay just miss.  Our time last year would have put us in this years meet.  She missed qualifying in the mile by less than a half second a year ago.  So to finally kick down the door as a senior is an opportunity I know she is greatly looking forward to.

Below is this weeks press conference (in three parts) outlining what lies ahead for Amanda.  Be sure to wish her good luck on our team facebook page (Search University of Utah Track & Field).  The rest of our team will use the next two weeks to prepare for the outdoor season which will begin on March 15-16 at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego, CA.


Part 2


Part 3