Kaplar Sisters and 4x400 Shine in Arkansas

Senior Chelsey Kaplar ran 1:00.56 to finish 6th in the long hurdles and freshman sister Angie ran 14.06 for a 3rd place showing in the sprint hurdles amid stormy weather at the Arkansas Twilight. The 4x400 meter relay (Lauryn McKay, Ashley Mosley, Whitney Wellington, and C Kaplar) combined to run 3:42.55 (3rd fastest time in school history) to finish fourth overall.

This is a great start to our weekend. We have athletes competing at Stanford and Oregon on Saturday as well as high jumper Langley Iverson jumping against a solid field in Irvine, CA on Sunday. Check back for more results.

Grimm is AOW!

The fifth best hammer throw in the nation this year has lead to Athlete of the Week honors from our conference office for senior Sarah Grimm. This is our programs first AOW honor, so another big step forward. She was also honored by http://www.runnerspace.com/CollegeHammer

Finally!!!

Sorry for the delay in the final posting from this past weekend. However, it will be well worth the read as Saturday was an outstanding day at both meets. Senior Sarah Grimm picked up from where she left off last week. Last week she moved to #2 on the all-time school list in the hammer and broke the 200 ft barrier for the first time. This week...she is now the school record holder! Sarah threw 207-1.75 to break the old school record mark of 205-0 set by Vanessa Mortensen (2006) and win the event. During the competition she had two other throws over the 200 ft mark as well. That throw ranks her first in the MWC, second in the West region, and fifth in the country.

Freshman Nikkie Rudder continued her successful season by winning the shot put in a new PR of 45-9 which ranks fifth on the school list and sixth in the MWC. Two other freshman also had very success meets. Megan Combe set a lifetime best in the 1500 meter of 4:39.82 which qualifies her for the U.S Junior National championships in June. Natalie Young ran the third fastest time in Utah school history (24.97) for 200 meters.

The Drake Relays ended how it began for the Utes...with a victory!!! Former Ute and volunteer coach, Shayla Houlihan won the steeplechase on Thursday afternoon. On Saturday evening the University of Utah picked up it's first ever victory in a university division event at the 101 year old event when junior Alyssa Abbott won the 1500 meter race. Her time of 4:23.48 is a PR, ranks second in the Utah school record books, first in the MWC, and 21st in the West region. Teammate Amanda Mergaert finished fourth in the same race in a new personal best time of 4:26.56 which is fourth in Utah school history, fifth in the MWC, and 48th in the region. The sprint medley quartet of Whitney Wellington, Lauryn McKay, Ashley Mosely, and Lucy Yates finished eighth overall (3:55.51).

Below is the link to the 1500m race and Alyssa's post race interview from Drake.

www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236860/329702


www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236860-2010-drake-relays/329606-alyssa-abbott-utah-university-1500-champ-2010-drake-relays

This was without question our most successful weekend of the outdoor season thus far. Hopefully, it's a sign of more good things to come as we prepare for the championship portion of our schedule.

Drake Day 3, Robison Postponed

Our events at BYU today were moved to Saturday due to very poor weather conditions. Check back tomorrow for an update.

Today at Drake brought mixed results. Freshman Angie Kaplar (14.49) finished sixth in her heat and 15th overall in her first Drake Relays. She will get better with more exposure to meets of this caliber. The distance medley relay was seventh in the 19 team field (11:32.85). A dropped baton on the first exchange cost us some time and a place or two. Langley Iverson followed that up with a runner up finish in the high jump. She cleared 5-7 and was second based on misses. The jumping conditions were less than ideal with a wet surface and a breeze in the jumpers faces. Langley cleared the first two heights on her first attempts and had three solid attempts at what was the winning height (5-8.75), but was unable to get the clearance and keep the contest going. Our final event of the day was the 4x400 meter relay prelims. We were fourth in our heat and 15th overall. Freshman Ashley Mosley split 54.7 on the second leg to keep us in the mix.

Five years ago these are results we would have been thrilled with. Today, because of the growth and progression of our program those results left several of our girls with a sour taste in their mouths. The good news is that most of them get to run again tomorrow with a little redemption in mind. For those that don't it will give them some extra motivation to have some great practice sessions leading up to the conference championships. We'll get a good dinner and some rest and come back tomorrow with a renewed energy level and be ready to compete hard.

Day 2...Drake Relays

Day two was a solid day for our sophomore heptathlete, Bree Leroy. We were hoping for a little better long jump, but her run looked great and was consistent. She had a PR in the javelin so it's nice to see that progressing. The 800 is always her toughest event as her strengths are the speed and power events rather than this endurance event. She finished 12th overall and only missed her PR by 100 points. Associate head coach, Burke Bockman, figures she lost about 500 points when she fell in the hurdles on day one. If you add those points in, she PR's by 400 points and finishes 6th....not too bad for her second hep ever!!! I'm really proud of her for bouncing back and refocusing after that fall.

The day ended about as well as a coach could hope for. Volunteer coach and former Ute, Shayla Houlihan became a Drake Relays Champion. This is every Iowa kids' dream growing up and she finally realized that goal today. Her time of 10:03.00 was a PR by about .3 seconds. However, there is no doubt she can still run a lot faster based on her last two laps where she pulled away from the gal she ran with for the first five laps.

The final group of distance runners traveling from SLC today got hung up in Denver for an extended period of time this morning due to poor weather conditions. They finally made it to DM at 3pm. So the whole group is here now and day three will feature freshman Angie Kaplar in the 100m hurdle prelims, sophomore high jumper, Langley Iverson, as well as the distance medley and 4x400m relays. Go to www.drakerelays.org for live results.

Our group at the BYU Robison Invitational will start competing tomorrow as well. Friday will feature the Javelin, Pole Vault, and Shot Put in the field events. Several running events will also take place. Go to www.runnercard.com for updated results.

....and of course, check back here for my personal take on each day. Go Utes!

Drake Relays Update...

Our lone competitor on day one of the Drake Relays is heptathlete, Bree Leroy. She was one hurdle away from a great day. Unfortunately, Bree hit the final hurdle in the first event (100m hurdles) and fell. She was able to get back up and finish which is a credit to her perseverance. That fall led to an early hole in terms of total points. Her other three events (HJ, SP, and 200m) were very solid which shows her toughness to shake off one bad event and not allow it to affect the remaining events. That is critical to being an outstanding muliteventer. Without the fall Bree would likely be in sixth place going into the final three events today. As it is she is 13th and she will aim for a top ten finish in her first ever Drake Relays.

Senior Banquet

This past Monday evening we celebrated the contributions and the careers of our seniors (Laryssa Simpson, Whitney Wellington, Chelsey Kaplar, Sydney Osmun, and Sarah Grimm). All of them have contributed in various ways to the continuing growth of our program. It has been fun to watch them grow and learn throughout their time on our team. We wish them the best as they move forward with their lives.