Banquet Pictures

Team Banquet

On Friday, Octobe 24th we held our track & field and cross country team banquet honoring the 2007-2008 team.  In the past we had held this banquet in May after returning from the conference championships.  However, the season wasn't really over (Regional and NCAA Championships were yet to be held).  So this year I decided to move this banquet to the fall which would allow us to appropriately honor our regional and national level athletes.  It also allowed our incoming freshmen to understand the specialness of being part of our program.  

Cross Country Athlete of the Year:  Alyssa Abbott, SO (All Mountain Region Performer)

Track Athlete of the Year:  Chelsea Shapard, JR (NCAA Semifinalist, MWC Champion-400m hurdles)

Field Athlete of the Year:  Josefin Berg, JR (NCAA Qualifier, All MWC-hammer throw)

Coaches Award:  Sarah McFee, SR (Best overall teammate..voted on by teammates and coaches)

4.00 Award: Lauren Endersen, JR (Maintained a 4.00 GPA for entire year)...Lauren has a 4.00 for her entire college career

It was an outstanding evening and afterward we went out and supported the women's soccer team who was playing at home that evening as well.  

Utah Ranked 6th

The new weekly NCAA Regional rankings were released today and we moved up three spots to #6 in the very difficult Mountain Region. Our region always has four or five NCAA qualifying teams, so to be ranked 6th is a testament to the hard work and dedication or our young women. This ranking also signifies our highest regional ranking since 1996. The schools in front of us have been consistent NCAA qualifying teams. Colorado and BYU have won 6 of the last 18 (1/3) women's team titles. So that is some pretty good company to be in right now.

Our performance at this past weekends Pre National meet was solid, but not our best. We were 26th out of the 39 teams in our race, but only 60 points from 19th. In a race with 287 finishers that is not a lot of points. We finished third among the conference schools (including defeating defending conference and regional champion Colorado State). CSU is an exceptionally talented team and we know they will run much better at conference and regionals. Hopefully, our women will be up for that great challenge. We know we have some room to improve. We also have a few health concerns, but I know our women will do what our athletic trainers ask of them and be prepared to run in our upcoming championship meets. We are off this coming weekend, but then head to sunny San Diego for the Mountain West Conference championships on November 1st. We were picked to finish fourth in the pre season coaches poll and will certainly look to improve upon that forecast.

Keep following this outstanding group of young women. I want to personally thank everyone who has called, sent emails, etc. for your support of our program. We know it is headed in the right direction and growing for the long term.

Pre Nats

We competed in the White Race (2nd of two equally seeded races) at the Pre Nationals this morning in Terre Haute, IN (home of Indiana State).  This course will host the NCAA championships in November.   With 39 teams in our race we knew we had our hands full and had to get out and in position early.  It was a cool morning with the slightest breeze on a dry, rolling course--perfect for cross country.  

Our top two runners (Alyssa Abbott and Chelsea DiGrazia) got out well with the rest of our team in solid positions.  At the half way point (3k) I was very pleased with our positioning.  Alyssa and Chelsea were within the first 70 and the rest of our gals were in the top half of the field.  We knew several runners would go out too hard with the early pace.  We wanted to be in position to take advantage of that.  Overall, I thought we did that well.  We had a solid finish and ended up 26th in our field of 39 that included 11 ranked teams.  We were only 60 points from a top 20 finish.  So part of me also feels like we let one get away.  Like everyone we have had our share of illness and a few minor injuries.  Hopefully, we can keep fighting through that and run even better at the conference championships in two weeks.  We were third among our conference teams and sixth among our regional teams that competed.  

Lincoln Elementary

Today several members of the cross country team participated in a community service event at a local elementary school (Lincoln: Grades K-6) in South Salt Lake.  We try to promote our program by helping others and doing things that have meaning for everyone involved.  As the pictures and video show we had a fun time.  Be sure to turn up the volume on the video for a little narration of the activities. You should have seen the looks on all of those kids faces. They enjoyed us and we really enjoyed spending time with them.  

Pre Pre Nats

The calm before the storm is upon us.  We haven't raced in three weeks since we took 6th place out of 33 teams at the Stanford Invite.  I feel very good about the training that has taken place and I think our group is ready to run at the biggest meet of the year so far.  The Pre National meet will take place at Indiana State University, which is also the host site for this years NCAA championship event.  

Fall weather has started to set in here in Salt Lake which has provided us with some very nice weather to train in thus far.  Our team understands the enormity of the Pre Nats meet in terms of quality and quanity.  All but two ranked teams are scheduled to compete plus about 50 more teams hoping to gain some at-large points in case they are not an automatic qualifier out of their region.  A total of 84 teams will be split into two, equally seeded 42 team fields. Regardless of what race you are in, it will be challenging and fast.  

Be sure to check out the Utah Athletic website for results on Saturday afternoon.  www.utahutes.com