MS Champion

Last night was another very special night for an individual as well as our program. Senior Alyssa Abbott was honored by the Utah-Southern Idaho Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society as the Female Collegiate Athlete of the Year. The 33rd Annual "Dinner of Champions" presented by the McCarthey Family honored people who have excelled in a variety of ways to support the fight against MS. Some of these people have a direct connection with MS among family or friends. Other recipients serve as volunteers and leaders in the community to raise awareness of MS. To have an athlete from our program selected to receive this award is very special. Alyssa has been a leader for us in so many ways on and off the track. Her goals are always set very high and her focus to achieve those goals is never compromised. We are all extremely proud of her.

The University of Utah was also represented by Nate Fakahafua (Male HS Athlete of the Year) who is a freshman on the Utah Football team and Dr. Chris Hill (Sportsperson of the Year) who is our Athletic Director (and my boss:)

All of the recipients join a very select group of past recipients who excelled in much more than their athletic endeavors. While their successes in athletics have served as an inspiration to many, it is their work in the classroom and community that have allowed them to be deserving of their respective honors.

Last nights dinner and ceremony was a collection of some of the very best athletes, community leaders, and people to ever live in Utah. It was a fun and memorable evening. A special thanks goes to the McCarthey Family for putting on this event and leading the fight in finding a cure for MS.

1-2-3-4 Dominate!

My apologies for the delay of this posting. I was out of town yesterday at the annual Pac-12 coaches meetings. However, it was a very good weekend for the Utes as we dominated the UNR Twilight 4K in Reno on Saturday night. Senior Alyssa Abbott returned home and put on a show for her family and friends as she ran away from the field in her first race in almost three years. Abbott easily won the race in a time of 14:41. Her first race as a freshmen was also in Reno and she won that race as well. Sophomore Rebekah Winterton (15:02), freshman Susannah Hurst (15:07), and junior Hilary Troutner (15:10) took the next three spots overall. Another freshman, Lauren Mills was 10th (15:33) to close out the Utah scoring and give the Utes an easy 20-41-65 victory over host UNR and UNLV. Lucy Yates (13th), Kate Stringfellow (15th), Nikki Dotter (17th), Alexis Davis (24th) and Brooke Casagranda (28th) rounded out the Utah finishers.

We held out a few runners for a variety of reasons again so we should continue to improve when they return to the line up. It was fun to have everyone compete well and win a meet in that fashion. Both UNR and UNLV are young so I thought we did what we should have. We have some work to do in the next two weeks before we run our first 6K race of the season at Stanford.

Anticipated Debut

After back to back medical redshirt seasons super senior Alyssa Abbott will step back on the cross country course for the first time since the 2008 NCAA Championships. Arthroscopic knee surgery on both knees forced her to miss the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Her track seasons in that time have included qualifying for the NCAA Regional Championships in the 1500 and 5K both years. So she has continued to improve when she has regained her health after extensive re-hab and cross training both times.

On Saturday Alyssa will go back to her hometown (Reno, NV) where she ran and won her first ever collegiate race in 2006. It will be a different course, but family and friends will be there to watch the senior open what we all believe can be a very special season.

She's been our leader during her entire time in our program. It's great to see her get to lead us into our inaugural season in the Pac-12. While the conference affiliation, the course, and the uniforms are different one thing hasn't changed with Alyssa. She will be excited and nervous prior to the race, but once the race begins everyone will see what I've been lucky enough to see for the last five years....the bouncing blonde pony tail clad in a white top and red bottoms leaving a trail for everyone else to follow:)

Hills at Red Butte

Tuesday's practice focus was getting in some hill running. We have lots of options when it comes to hills near campus. Fortunately, many of them are on dirt and gravel. They vary in slope and length so we can simulate just about any type of hill that a course will give us. The first part of the workout was on a long, steady hill. The second half was on a dirt trail in the foothills behind the medical center and is much steeper.

Watch out! I'm starting to become a movie "director". I didn't really have to do too much editing. Adding the music didn't even require a medical degree. Hopefully, this isn't just beginners luck.

Enjoy!

...and We're Off!!!

Four true freshmen and a newcomer to the scoring five helped us finish third in our opening meet of the season at Utah State. Susannah Hurst-FR, Hilary Troutner-JR, and Nikki Rietz-FR (see second video) finished 2-5-8 to lead our team into the 2011 season. True freshmen Macee Nielson and Lauren Mills were 23rd and 25th to round out our scoring.

I was impressed with our freshmen, especially with it being their first collegiate meet. I thought they ran aggressively. Hilary put in a ton of miles and rededicated herself to finding out how good she can be. I'd say she's off to a great start. We had some other solid performances for the first meet as well. We held out three of our top four and four of our projected top ten runners so we should improve even more as we add them into the mix at upcoming meets.

Getting Libertized

We spend a lot of time at Liberty Park doing our threshold work during the year. It is only about two and a half miles from campus so it's easy to get to. Liberty features a 1.5 mile loop with either a woodchip trail or grass to run on. The trail has a gradual slope to it, but not enough in either direction to interrupt the consistency we are looking for in these efforts.

Another attempt at using my HD Flip Cam. I even did a little editing by trimming some of the clips. If I ever figure out how to combine them and add music I'll be in business and you won't have to listen to me giving instructions.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get some footage from our meet on Saturday. Be sure to play the videos from the bottom to the top. I didn't save them in the in the right order (still learning).

Working with a new Flip Cam (It's HD!!!). Of course, that means more things to figure out. Took a few videos at camp and this is the one that turned out good enough to post. Lucy, Nikki, Nikki, and Lauren running some hills on an old dirt road.