Five for Fighting!

FIVE VICTORIES FOR FIVE UTES

LeRoy, Kaplar, Stahl, Yates, and Mergaert combine for five wins, three all-time top five performances, and a school record.

SUPERMAN (Women)...It's not easy to be me...
The University of Utah tracksters had an awesome mid-season meet hosted by Idaho State on Friday and Saturday and New Mexico Invitational hosted by the University of New Mexico. At New Mexico, Amanda Mergaert won the Mile finishing in 4:46.40 (altitude adjusted time), which is a new University of Utah record. Lucy Yates also won her event, 800 Meters in the same meet clocking in a time of 2:09.26 (aa). At the Mountain States Games Brianna LeRoy won the Pentathlon with a new record total of 3643, which is all-time fourth best score in school’s history. Anneli Ståhl won the Weight Throw with a personal record and the fifth best throw on the all-time list, 59’ 1.25”. Angela Kaplar won the 60 Meter Hurdle competition with an outstanding time of 8.65.

CHANCES are...
Utes had many other great performances. Cynthia Sanchez was second in the Weight Throw with a toss of 58’ 2.5”, eighth on the all-time list.Utah had four throwers in the Shot Put finals: Nikkie Rudder placed third with a new record put of 46’ 7.25”, third on the all-tiime list; Candus Aiello had a life-time best of 44’ 5.5”, eighth on the all-time list; Freshman Destanae Howerton-Davis placed fifth and had a three foot pr, unleashing 43’ 9.25”, tenth on the all-time list; and Alanna Nulph was eighth with a season best toss of 41’ 10.75”. .

It's not EASY TONIGHT...
Brianna LeRoy had some great marks that lead to her win in the Pentathlon: a new pr and all-time eighth best time in the 60 Meter Hurdles, 9.02, 5’ 7.75” in the High Jump, 18’ 3” in the Long Jump, and new pr in the Shot Put, 33’ 10”. .

Another SLICE of Utah Track
Freshman Rebekah Winterton was third in the 3000 Meters finishing in a record time of 10:20.72 (aa). Alyssa Johnson finished fourth in the 200 Meters with a good time of 25.39. Utah 4x400 Meter Relay Team Distance Rosalie Griffin, Wilson, Lauryn McKay, Stephanie Muelleck and Kayla McMurray finished third with a time of 3:56.16.

UP NEXT FOR THE UTES University of Utah women's track and field team will compete at Bronco Open hosted by the Boise State University in Nampa, Idaho on Feb. 5.

GO UTES!!!!

A Historic Jump

The all-time Mountain West Conference best mark ever recorded in the women's high jump was 6-0.25 (Lindsay Metcalf-BYU) until around 7:30pm this past Friday night. That's when the bar was raised to 1.85m (6-0.75) and on her second attempt Utah junior Langley Iverson re-wrote the record book with her clearance at the Cherry & Silver Classic hosted by New Mexico. That mark ranks second in school history only 1/8" behind Traci Stevens. It also ranks third in the country this year. It was Iverson's first ever clearance of the 6-0 barrier. The mark is also an automatic qualifying standard for the NCAA indoor championships to be hosted by Texas A&M in March. She cleared the same height as the winner (Elizabeth Patterson), finished second in the event on the clearance count back. Patterson was a NCAA Champion and multi time NCAA all-American at Arizona.

Other outstanding performances came from the following athletes:

Bree LeRoy (high jump), 5-8, 7th...ninth on the all time Utah rankings
Cynthia Sanchez (weight throw), 57-3, 4th...ninth on the all time Utah rankings
Nikkie Rudder (shot put), 45-7.75, 4th
Klaudia Rokossa (pole vault), 12-1.5, 9th
Rosalie Griffin (400m), 58.43

We are back in action this weekend. Most of the team will be in Pocatello, ID for the Mountain States Games on Friday and Saturday. A few distance runners will travel to New Mexico for the UNM Invitational on Saturday.

Another Day Outside

Another January day in Utah, another day outside at the outdoor track for practice. Sure we can get some snow and chilly days, but Utah (and especially Salt Lake City) also offers more temperate days than most cities located at similar latitudes. Any chance we can get on our new outdoor track we will take it. Our team really enjoys the new facility and training on the soft surface it provides. Oh...and the view....just might be the best in the country. The Wasatch Mountains on three sides and the Salt Lake Valley floor below us. You can actually see the Great Salt Lake and Utah State Capitol from our track!!!

Success at Snake River

Our first full team meet of the year was a successful one as we picked up two individual event titles (HJ and Weight Throw) as well as six other top four finishes. Langley Iverson won the high jump (5-7.75) and Aneli Stahl won the weight (54-10.75). Overall, I thought we performed well for the first meet of the year for most of our athletes. We had several athletes running in "off" events either as a time trial or just to see where there fitness level was. We also held out a few key athletes to train through this meet and allow some minor injuries a little more time to heal. I expect a big leap forward in the next few meets in several events.

Runner ups included: Angie Kaplar-60H, 8.68; Bree Leroy-LJ, 17-11; and Nikkie Rudder-SP, 46-4

Third place finishers: Lucy Yates-400m, 57.77; 4x400m relay-3:54.35 (McKay, Johnson, Yates, Griffin)

Fourth place finishers: Candus Aiello-SP, 44-0.50




Videos:

Welcome back Klaudia. After red shirting last year with an achilles issue she is back and looked pretty good for the first time out in a year.

Theresa continues to improve. Her runway has become very consistent which was an issue a year ago.

Newcomer and freshman Suzy Vozarova's first ever high jump was successful as she made two bars and had three good attempts at 5-3.

First week back

After completing our first full week of practice after the holiday break we will be off to Pocatello, ID to compete in the Snake River Open on Saturday. Overall, I think we had a solid week. I saw lots of great individual effort. Other than the women who were recovering from injury, I feel like our kids did a nice job of getting their workouts in over break despite not all of them being in places where they had a track available.

I included a few short videos from practice in this post.

Off On the Right Foot

We took a limited squad to the opening meet of the indoor season at BYU this past weekend. We came away with two champions, a runner up, and some invaluable experience for a group of freshmen. Newcomer Cyndi Sanchez got us going in the first event as she won the weight throw with a nice toss of 53-10.75. Sophomore Nikki Rudder picked up where she left off last year by winning the shot put in a new indoor lifetime best toss of 46-6.75. She had three throws that went further than any throw during the entire indoor season a year ago. Teammate Candus Aeillo (who red shirted a year ago) was second with a lifetime best throw of 44-3.

Sophomore Angie Kaplar started the second day of the meet with a pair of lifetime bests in the 60 hurdles. in the prelims she ran 8.69 and then in the finals she took the runner up spot with 8.64 which ranks third all time at Utah. Older sister Jen Kaplar holds the school record at 8.60.

We also had several freshmen compete in their initial Division I college meet which was fun. They gained a great deal of experience and hopefully shed a few nerves in the process. We'll be back in action at the Snake River Open in Pocatello, ID on Saturday. We will have a full squad competing and look forward to seeing where we are after the holiday break.

Holiday Break Fun

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday break and the new year is off to a great start. For me, the break involved visiting family at home in Iowa, going to Disneyland and Universal Studios for the first time (with Hannah), and spending a day in Santa Monica before returning to SLC. Check out a few of the pics from Disneyland and California Adventures.

Favorite Ride: Space Mountain and Tower of Terror (rode this one four times:)

Favorite Character: Homer Simpson (he was burping on Hannah while we were taking pics with him and Marge)

Best Accommodations: JW Marriott-Le Merigot, Santa Monica....plush, very plush!

Best Food: Corn Fritter at Tony Roma's and Funnel Cake in Downtown Disney

The track season officially begins tomorrow at BYU with our throwers getting things started for us. School begins on Monday. We hope you'll follow us all season long during our final season in the Mountain West Conference!