I just checked in with our Athletics Academic Advisor, Rob Rainey, as our spring grades are in. It looks we did very well as a team again.  Two athletes had 4.00 GPA's with five others at 3.9 or higher.  It took 3.675 to make the top ten board in my office.  Nineteen athletes garnered academic all conference honors.  That is roughly 25% of the total number of Utah athletes (from all sports) on the list.  

Congrats to our team for such a successful academic semester.  I am so proud of all of them for being such great representatives of our team, our university, our community, and themselves.  

UTES Step Up Big at Conference Meet

Three Conference Champions, Two School Records
Utes qualify two more for the Regional Championships

Utah tracksters had a very successful Mountain West Conference Championship meet hosted by the University of Wyoming over the weekend. The Utes captured three championships and had two new Regional qualifiers and two new school records in the process.

Chelsea Shapard and Sarah Grimm were heavy favorites to win their events, 400 Meter Hurdles and the Hammer Throw, respectively. They did not disappoint their fans and dominated their events. Shapard ran a new school record time of 57.88, which was also a 0.3 second improvement on her Regional qualifying mark. The third winner, freshman Langley Iverson, however, surprised everyone except maybe the Utah coaching staff by winning the high jump title with a new lifetime best jump of 5’ 8.75”, which is fifth on the all-time list. Iverson qualified for the Regional championhsips as did another freshman, Klaudia Rokossa, in the Pole Vault. Rokossa placed fourth with a new personal best jump of 12’ 7.5” which is second on the all-time list.  
 
Utah’s 4x400 Meter Relay Team Chelsea Shapard, Chelsey Kaplar, Whitney Wellington and Ashley Patterson finihsed third in a new school record time of 3:38.96. It is also a two second improvement to their Regional qualifying time and their previous week and a half old school record.
 
The 4x100 Meter Relay team Haley McAllister-Birkeland, Whitney Wellington, Chelsea Shapard and Ashley Patterson placed fifth with a time of 46.39, which is second best time on the all-time list.  
 
Utah also had several other athletes that placed in the top eight: Josefin Berg 2nd in the Hammer with a toss of 193’ 3”, which is an improvement to her Regional qualifying mark; Lauren Endersen 5th  and 7th in the 10000 Meters and  5000 Meters, respectively; Kellie Anderson 6th in the 10000 Meters; Breanna Freestone 7th in the Javelin Throw with a 15 foot improvement on her personal record with a throw of 135’ 10”, which puts her in third place on the all-time list; Laryssa Simpson 7th in the Pole Vault with a jump of 11’ 7.75”, which is the same as her lifetime best; Haley McAllister-Birkeland 7th in the Long Jump with a good jump of 19’ 2”; Chelsey Kaplar 7th in the 400 Meter Hurdles; Mandi Witherspoon 8th in the High Jump with a lifetime best jump of 5’ 5”’; Ashley Patterson 8th in the 400 Meters; and Janett Ern 8th in the 1500 Meters with a new lifetime best time of 4:36.06. Jessica Hampton had a new lifetime best toss of 151’ 1” in the Hammer Throw.      
 
The Utes scored 76 points, which is their highest point total ever, and took fifth place in the team competiton. During the season the team had 76 new personal records, 31 All-time Top 10 performances, 3 school records, 10 Regional Qualifyers and 30 Regional Qualifying marks.   
 
Next up for the Utes is the West Region Championships in Eugene, OR on May 29-30.
 
GO UTES!!!!!!!!

Home Meet a Huge Success

School Record, Two New Regional Qualifiers
The Utes win eight events in the Utah Twilight

Utah tracksters had an outstanding meet on Tuesday evening when they competed in the Utah Twilight meet hosted by the University of Utah. The Utes had two new Regional Qualifiers and a new school record.

The 4x400 Meter Relay team Chelsea Shapard, Chelsey Kaplar, Whitney Wellington and Ashley Patterson won their race finishing with a new school record and a Regional qualifiying time of 3:41.16. Kaplar also qualified for the Regionals in the 400 Meter Hurdles finishing third with a time of 1:00.01. In the same event Shapard improved her qualifying time to 58.18.

The Utes also won seven other events in their only home meet this season. Lucy Yates won the 800 Meters with a new personal record time of 2:11.86 which ranks sixth on the all-time list. Chelsea DiGrazia won the 1500 Meters with a time of 4:37.86. Utah’s Janett Ern came in second in the same event with her new lifetime best of 4:38.25. Lauren Endersen won the 3000 Meter race at 10:06.65. Utah went 1-2 also in this event with the help of Kellie Anderson who took second place.

Ashley Patterson won the 400 Meter dash finishing in 55.71 seconds. Haley McAllister-Birkeland didn’t have any difficulties winning the Long Jump with a new season best jump of 19’ 4.25”. Langley Iverson took first place in the high jump with an effort of 5’ 5”. Klaudia Rokossa improved her personal record in the Pole Vault to 12’ 3.75”, which is sixth on the all-time list.

The Utes took the top two spots also in the Hammer Throw with Sarah Grimm and Josefin Berg finishing first and second throwing for the seventh time over the Regional qualifying mark, 194’11” and 192’5.50”, respectively. Grimm also had a new lifetime best throw of 143’ 5.75” in the Discus Throw. In the Hammer Throw Kastin Frostl, Wanda Dalton and Candus Aiello had new personal records.

I couldn't be prouder of our team for the way they competed. It felt like we won almost every event we entered. The events we did win were in dominating fashion. Our support staff and officials did a great job putting on the event

Next the Utes travel to the Mountain West Conference Championships May 13-16 in Laramie, WY.

GO UTES!!!!!!!

A Wet Weekend

We split our team last weekend in an effort to provide our national level athletes with an opportunity to compete against some of the best athletes from around the country at the 100th running of the Drake Relays.  Our younger and emerging athletes stayed closer to home and competed at the Robison Invitational hosted by BYU.  Both meets were met with a wide array of weather conditions.  It was 80+ degrees and breezy at Drake on Friday and then 45 degrees, overcast, and rainy on Saturday.  The meet at BYU was nice on Friday and then the rain and cold set in on Saturday as well.  

I thought our groups handled the conditions well.  One of the things I really enjoy about this team is that I never hear them complain about the conditions.  They understand that they are the same for everyone and that if it were a championship meet they would still be expected to compete at the highest level possible.  So even on days when personal best marks are not likely, they still compete hard and get as much out of the competition as possible.  We call it "hardening the shell".   

We continue our season this weekend by again splitting our team and going to two meets (Arkansas Twilight and Southern Utah Invite).  The Arkansas meet is a great long sprint and middle distance meet.  The SUU meet will hopefully provide some warmer weather and good competition with five schools competing.  We still have a few athletes who need to reach their NCAA regional qualifying marks and hope to get that done this weekend.  

Finally, our only home meet of the season (Utah Twilight) will be held this coming Tuesday (May 5th).  Some of our athletes have named it the Cinco de Mayo Relays.  It serves as a final tune-up meet prior to the conference championships that will start nine days later.  This meet has a history of producing some really good performances and we hope that trend will continue.  We also look forward to it being the final home meet at our old facility as we are scheduled to open our brand new outdoor facility later this fall.   So if your in the area we'd love to have you come out and support our team.  

Happy running, 

Coach Kep

Senior Banquet

The annual University of Utah Senior Banquet was held last night at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City.  I really enjoy this event as it celebrates the accomplishments of all of our student athletes.  It also puts our athletic department, athletics supporters, and university administration in a great setting for saying "thank you" for all that they do for our teams and coaches.  

We have 10 seniors leaving our program at the end of this year.  It is a very special group in every way.  This is the group who were freshmen during my first year as the head coach.  They have endured and survived great change in that period.  Most importantly, they have become the foundation for this program to continue to build and grow back to what it was in the 80's and early 90's.  This will always be a group of women who I will count on to support our program for the rest of their lives as well as seek advice from as we continue to move forward.  

I will forever be indebted to them for their positive attitudes, perseverance, and hard work.

As a special note, senior Lauren Endersen was presented with the Budd Jack top female student award. She carries a perfect 4.0 GPA and will be attending medical school at The Ohio State University next fall.  OSU boasts one of top 15 medical schools in the country.  

Again, congratulations to all of our seniors.    

Producing PR's and Top 10's

Wow!  What a weekend for the Utes.  We had personal records (PR's) in almost every event.  Both distance runners (Kellie Anderson-10K and Lauren Endersen-5K) who went to the Mt Sac Relays ran PR's.  

At Utah State the remainder of our team won five events and had 13 other top three finishes.  Sarah Grimm and Josefin Berg continue to be a big time 1-2 punch in the hammer throw.  Sarah had another five foot PR to go to 199-0 which leads the conference and is third on the all-time school list.  She also ranks fifth in the NCAA West Region.  

Chelsea Shapard regionally qualified in her second event after running a lifetime best 54.50 in the open 400 meter race.  1500 meter runner Chelsea DiGrazia ran a new PR of 2:13 for 800 meters placing her second overall.

So far this outdoor season (four meets) our team has set 51 new lifetime best marks.  Twenty of those marks are now all-time Top 10 performances in school history.  We also have four athletes qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships in five events.  

As the weather continues to improve we will be looking forward to even greater improvements. We will be at the Drake Relays (100th year celebration of "America's Athletic Classic") and the Robison Invitational hosted by BYU.  Both meets will provide excellent competition and opportunities for our team to continue to improve.

Finding Our Way

While the weather was a little less than what you think of for Arizona, we were still able to put together some great performances.  Light rain, wind, and cool temperatures plagued what is usually track and field paradise at this time of the year.  However, we had athletes in almost every event group compete at a very high level.  Our weekend included another NCAA Regional Qualifier (Chelsea DiGrazia-1500m, 4:26.71) and three other NCAA Regional performances from our three athletes who had already qualified.  

Junior Sarah Grimm had another huge PR in the hammer throw (194-0).  Chelsea Shapard finished second in the 400m hurdles against a field loaded with NCAA championship qualifiers and All Americans.  Her time of 58.88 was the fastest she has ever run at this time of the year. Freshman Langley Iverson cleared 5-7 in the high jump and had two great attempts at 5-8.75 which is the NCAA Regional qualifying mark.  Seniors Lauren Endersen (17:13.50) and Kellie Anderson (17:26.80) both ran lifetime bests in the 5K.  Another senior, Janett Ern ran a personal best mark of 4:40.00 for 1500m.  

I was really impressed with how we competed in most events.  I thought we dealt with the weather and we had several athletes who were fighting illness.  We still have some work to do and a few athletes are not where they want to be.  However, I think between practice and our upcoming meets we still have plenty of time to solve those issues and keep moving forward.