Superman and Basketball??

When have you ever said the following...."There's nothing to do here", "It's boring in this place", "Where is the fun here"? In Salt Lake City those are questions you don't have to ask yourself or your friends. We have our own version of 7/11. Eleven ski resorts and seven shopping malls all within 5-30 minutes of campus. Thousands of miles of trails to bike, hike, and run. Three National parks, Three amusement/water parks, 15 golf courses, World Famous Hogle Zoo, NBA (Utah Jazz), Minor League Baseball (Salt Lake Bees), Major League Soccer (2009 MLS Champion Real Salt Lake), Minor League Hockey (Utah Grizzlies) and our University of Utah Athletic teams. That is just a taste of what we have here in SLC.

Energy Solutions Arena (home of the Jazz) also hosts several big time concerts (Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Britney Spears, Hannah Montana, Jason Aldean, Elton John, and James Taylor to name a few) and other national events including the NCAA West Region Semifinal and Final Basketball tournament games. The three games here featured Butler's upset of #1 (Syracuse) and #2 (Kansas St) as well as an instant tournament classic when K-State held off Xavier in two overtimes. We also have several smaller venues for concerts and shows.

I have included a picture from the Thursday games at the NCAA West Region BB tournament that I attended. Last night I went to the "Five for Fighting" concert at one of the smaller venues across the street from the ESA. Might be the best concert I've been to here in SLC. John Ondrasik (lead singer) was awesome. Great voice, excellent stories about the songs, and immaculate overall sound.

San Francisco Bay

Here is the Stanford quartet. We were done racing early Saturday afternoon so we made a trip into historic SF Pier 39, Golden Gate Bridge, and Lombard St (the crooked street). Lucy has 600+ pictures of the entire trip...I have one...and the videos in the previous posts. Do you recognize the famous landmark in the background?

Running Fast Early

2:08, 4:27, 4:30....All pretty fast times for March! Lucy's 800 meter time was five seconds faster than a year ago at this meet even though she probably ran 812 meters due to moving in and out of traffic. Alyssa's race lagged the first lap and then she took over and pushed the pace the rest of the way. 74-70-69-last 400m was 68 sec. There is no doubt that she is on track to run under 4:20 later in the season. Amanda's race had a solid opening lap, but then fell off a bit on the second lap. She allowed the leaders to open too big off a gap to catch them in the final 300 meters, but overall ran a solid race. She continues to learn something valuable every race.

Party in the U.S.A.

The goal was simple...run 10:12 or faster in order to reach the "A" standard for the U.S. Outdoor National Championship meet. Mission accomplished! Based on her indoor 3K performances and sixth place finish at the indoor national meet Shayla and I both knew it was possible, but the steeple is a tough, tricky event especially the first one of the season. However, she went out and took charge of the race and the pace. After a fair opening lap of 80 seconds she went to work and ran off laps of 75-78-79-80. She gave up the lead with just over two laps to go, but never lost contact with the leader. Her last lap looked strong and she made the pass coming out of the final water barrier to win the Stanford Invite in a new personal best of 10:03.26 which is a 26 second PR.

Below is video of the final lap.

Hangin' out in AZ....

After a successful meet I wanted our team to have a day to enjoy themselves before we went back to work today (Monday). Several of the gals went to the annual 4th Ave. Street Fair in Tucson. Coach Bockman and I took in a Spring Training baseball game (D'backs and Padres). There were also trips to local malls and the distance runners going for a run on the UA campus. Check out the videos and pics of some of our adventures.

Just in case you missed it...

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236661-2010-nd-alex-wilson-invitational/313433-utah-womens-dmr-5th-2010-alex-wilson-1113

Off and Running, Throwing and Jumping Outdoors

Our initial outdoor meet of the 2010 season is now complete. Overall I was pleased with our effort and development. As is normal with the first meet of any season we had some performances that surpassed my expectations, some that were right about where I thought they should be, and a few that fell a little flat. That is the nature of this sport. With so many events and different levels of development it's hard to have every event/athlete performing at a high level at the same time.

We won three events and had five runner up finishes as well. Most important to me is the way we competed. I thought we scratched and clawed for every position we could get. With spring break this week my biggest concern was that our team may be more focused on the warm weather and break from classes than performing. However, our effort and performances were that of a very focused group that was here to get the outdoor season off to a good start and keep building on our successful indoor season.

With the meet completed we are staying in Tucson until Tuesday afternoon to train and enjoy the warmer temperatures. Some of the distance runners and myself went for a long run this morning. Full team practices will take place on Monday and Tuesday morning at the UA track facility. We return home on Tuesday evening. A few athletes will compete next weekend at Stanford, while the remainder of the team will compete in two weeks at BYU.

The Best America Has to Offer...

Sorry for the long delay in posts. However, we just missed sending five athletes to the NCAA indoor championships by two seconds (DMR), two inches (High Jump), and 2.5 seconds (800 meters). I needed a little extra time to swallow those near misses. The indoor meet is the toughest NCAA championship (all sports) to qualify for by percentage of athletes who make it. So in now way was I disappointed with our gals...more I was disappointed for them.

With that said....we are now in Tucson, AZ for five days including a two day meet this weekend (followed by three training days next week). Tonight we kicked off the outdoor season with some solid performances in several events. However...check the video out for the other amazing highlight.

Yep...that is most definitely the recently crowned World Indoor 3,000 meter champion, Bernard Lagat. Lagat trains in Tucson and his younger sister attends UA. Listen closely as gives you his take on Utah Track & Field. HIs list of accomplishments is too long to list here. World Champion, Olympian, American Record Holder, 8x Wannamaker Mile champion, and on and on and on and on.....

Will We Get In?

After yesterdays incredible DMR race I knew today could be another special day. It brought about two more provisional qualifying marks and two more personal bests. However, both efforts will come up just short of getting Langley (high jump) and Lucy (800 meters) into the NCAA meet. With the bar at 6-0 even (having already cleared a personal best 5-10) Langley had it cleared and her ticket to the NCAA championships punched. However, she grazed the bar on her way down; it wiggled and bounced and then as she hit the mat it painfully fell. It was that close.

Lucy ran an outstanding race through 600 meters and didn't finish poorly, however just wasn't able to hang on and run a time that would get her into the NCAA meet. Her time was another PR (2:07.55). She ran two lifetime bests on back to back days and gained valuable experience in the process.

The last two weekends could be a huge springboard for our program as a whole. Now we wait and pray that the DMR gets a chance that I know they deserve. If not, we will take some active rest next week and prepare for the outdoor season.

Tonight we drove back to Chicago (we fly back to SLC tomorrow morning). We took the train into the city for dinner (Giordano's) across from the Sear's Tower and sightseeing. Lucy took a ton of pictures. I'll post a few after she sends them to me. That was followed by shopping at Forever 21. Finally, it was the train back to the hotel. All in all it has been an awesome trip. Hopefully, we get to take another one to Arkansas next week.

DMR Runs 11:13!!!!

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!

Last Chance

Our final opportunity to qualify events for the NCAA Indoor championships occurs this weekend. We have five athletes competing. We will send our high jumper Langley Iverson to Seattle, WA. She needs to go 6-7 cm (2-3 inches) higher to get into the championships. She's had some great looks and jumps at that height. We just need to make it one time.

Coach Bockman and I will be going with the distance medley relay to Notre Dame. It will be a hot race and we will have to run a great race to give ourselves a chance to run fast and qualify. We won't be the favorites, but if we can stay with the main group we could get pulled along to a really fast time.

The picture above is from the conference championship meet last week. We are eating at one of Albuquerque's most famous restaurants...Rudy's. It is a great BBQ place.