The cross country team has raced twice and finished second in both meets thus far. The Utes were second to open the season at the Nevada Twilight. Last Friday in our home meet the same nine gals combined for the runner up spot again. We have not raced at "full strength" yet as I've chosen to hold out our top two runners as they had long track seasons. However, they (Senior Rebekah Winterton, and Freshman Sarah Feeny) will likely see their first races in two weeks at Montana State.
Thus far we have been led by seniors Nikki Rietz and Lauren Mills along with true freshman Shaylen Crook. They were 4-5-6 at Nevada and 6-7-8 at our home meet. Behind them have been two freshmen (Dakota Grossman and Sadie Wassum) along with soph Jessica Sams.
Also...as some of you may know we have a new sprint/hurdle/jumps/multi coach. Pete Herber comes to our program from South Florida (and Iowa State before that). I have known Pete for a long time and watched him "pay his dues" and develop into a terrific coach. Pete coached two All Americans last year at South Florida. Pete was an outstanding collegiate high jumper (lifetime best of 7-3.25) at Northern Iowa. Yes...the same Northern Iowa that I attended. The same Northern Iowa that Burke attended. We were teammates for a couple of years and the coaching tree in several sports at UNI extends all over the country. Regardless, I felt Pete gave our program the best chance to continue moving forward in the Pac-12 and nationally. He has coached almost every event and had success in those events at his previous schools. I hope you will welcome Pete and his family (wife Dawn and kids Ellie and Tate) to our program.
Pete replaces Burke who has moved on to Tacoma, WA where he joins his fiancee, Tracy. Tracy is a Utah alumnus who recently completed medical school and was fortunate to land a great job in Olympia, WA. Burke will be coaching at DII St Martin's also located on Olympia. I will dearly miss Burke as he was a huge asset to our program and me personally. He always had great ideas and input and I know he will continue to be successful in his transition to the Great Northwest.
Be sure to check us out at Twitter and Facebook. Pete is doing his best to takeover for Burke on that front which we all know will not be easy. Burke was our social media czar. Be patient and he will get it up and rolling regularly again.
