Camping Utah Style

With preseason camp complete we are now looking forward to school starting and our first competition at Utah State on August 31st.  We had lots of fun running at camp, discussing goals, making homemade pasta, and making a few new animal friends.  

Victory Lap!

Sorry for the lateness of this report.  In the final outdoor race of the 2013 Utah Track & Field season and the final race of her collegiate career, senior All American, Amanda Mergaert went out a winner.  The time (2:08) wasn't a PR and the field wasn't nearly as strong as it was two days earlier, but a win is a win.  The LaFarge High Performance meet in Abbotsford, BC, Canada was the second in a three meet series over five days in British Columbia.  Amanda took control of the race early and never looked back as the nearest competitor was three seconds back.

She called it her victory lap for what will go down as one of the greatest seasons by any individual in any sport in Utah school history.

A full recap of her stellar career will be posted soon at www.utahutes.com.  It will be a great retrospective of her development as a runner.  She'll be the first to tell you it wasn't always easy and came with a few rough patches.  However, she always accepted the challenges and looked forward to the opportunities that came her way.  Along the way she learned how to become a genuine and effective leader.  Most importantly, she learned she could do it her way and enjoy all of the success that her and her teammates enjoyed along the journey.

She recently signed a professional contract to run for Oiselle (pronounced Wa-Sell) during the 2014 season.  Check out www.oiselle.com to learn more about this unique and growing women's apparrel company.  

And finally...it's time for summer break.  I will be looking ahead to what we believe will be another outstanding cross country season for the Utes in 2014.  It will be a young squad with no seniors in the top five, but three of the five have NCAA championship experience on the track.  Check back her for more details and the season schedule soon!

The Prize

It's something that caught her eye on her recruiting trip.  It's something that has been so temptingly close to happening.  Yet, it was a mark that was like Stockton to Malone and an NBA title...always a near miss.  The 800 meter school record is the mark that Amanda has been chasing her whole career.  Even when her premier event became the mile her sophomore it's something she has always coveted.

Finally..today...in her first international race...she took it down...and did so with authority.  Her lifetime best of 2:06.33 was accomplished in April on a breezy day after a tough 1500 the day before.  That left her .12 short of Lucy Yates's 2011 mark of 2:06.21.  At the Drake Relays she came up short by less than half a second again.   Then began a series of eight consecutive 1500 meter races to end the collegiate season.

Her patience and focus has paid off as today in Vancouver at one of Canada's most famous track meets (and on Canada Day to boot) she ran 2:04.73 to finish second in the 800m race.  She was just out leaned at the line by season line rival Rebecca Tracy (2:04.71) for the win.  Even 400m splits of 62 seconds including a furious move down the backstretch to get into contention made the difference.

Amanda's final race of the 2013 season will be another 800m run on Wednesday night in Abbotsford, BC at the Lafarge High Performance meet.

7th in the Country

As great as 3rd in the NCAA sounds, 7th in the country might sound even better.  Sorry for the long delay with this posting.  I saved it as a draft and forgot to post it after such an exciting trip.  The final of the women's 1500 at the US Championships featured three collegians and nine professionals.  The winning time was the third slowest in the meets history due to no one being willing to lead on a hot and windy day.  They went out slower than the 10K gals did two nights before.  That, of course, favored the kickers and those who were not afraid to fail.  That perfectly describes how Amanda has run this year.  She led the early laps in front of national TV audience.  With 600 meters to go the pace started to pick up and she held off the pack.  With 400 to go she found herself surrounded and on the rail.  At 350 m to go she tripped, but quickly regained her stride and was able to hang on to the main pack that was now beginning to move hard down the backstretch.  Down the homestretch is was total chaos with runners in weaving in and out trying to secure the highest position they could.  Amanda landed in 7th and less than a full second from third.  It was that close!  Three first team All American honors and now 7th at the US National meet...what a season!

On to the Finals!

Those four words never get old and we've been able to say them a lot this year.  Amanda ran another strong prelim race at the US Championships and qualified for Saturday's 1500 meter final.  As one of only three collegians to qualify for the race it shows the quality of that event in the US.  She ran 4:15.54  to capture the final spot.  That is her sixth race with a time of 4:15 or faster in the last eight weeks.  Her slowest time of the year in that event is 4:20 in the prelim round at Pac-12's, which was an easy effort.

Saturday's final will be televised on Universal Sports Channel at 4:45p (CDT).  Check with your local cable provider regarding your channel lineup:)

If I can get pics from the prelims I'll post them asap.  I hope this season never ends!

We made it to Des Moines and the US Championships.  In usual Amanda fashion she has made another new friend.  2012 Olympic 400 Meter Gold Medallist, Sanya Richards-Ross, happened to be checking in at the same time as us.  After a short introduction and a photo op you'd have thought these two were old friends.  They chatted about bunions and commencement speeches among other topics.

Semi final race is today at 4:40p local time.  Go to www.usatf.org for video link and results.  This meet tends to place a little more emphasis on time than  the NCAA meet does in regard to qualifying.  Therefore, the advancement rules are top three in each heat and then the next six times.

Triplets!!!

I apologize for posting this great news so late.  It was a busy week last week.  I have trying to obtain some great photos (which I have seen, just haven't received permission to download yet) from the NCAA Championships.

In case you missed it...Amanda closed out her collegiate career by finishing third at the NCAA Championships in the 1500 meter race.  Her semifinal was tightly bunched, but she calmly placed fifth (automatic advancement) and moved into the final.

In the final she was about as aggressive as I've ever seen her.  With 900m to go she moved from seventh to second by literally jumping from the rail to lane two.  She stayed near the lead through 300m to go when the packed tightened back up as the readied for a big stretch sprint home.  With 200m to go she was in fifth but trapped on the rail again and everyone was bumping and banging or as Harry Hogg would say "Rubbin' is Racin'.  Amanda held her ground and the inside line down the final 100m and was able to beat all but two for her third First Team All American honor this year.  (14th in XC, 5th in the indoor mile).

First Team AA honors (top 40 in xc, top eight in both indoor and outdoor track) in the same academic year in all three sports is an extremely rare accomplishment.  I believe there were only five athletes in the entire NCAA who did that this year.  The other four were all long distance gals (3,000 meters and up).  Amanda was the only "middle distance" runner to do it.  There are numerous "land mines" that can sidetrack this effort from illness to injury to stress.  Amanda mostly avoided those issues or if she did have to deal with them it was not at championship time.

Up next:  Amanda will likely be competing in the 1500 meter race at the USA Championships on Thursday (and Saturday if she qualifies for the final).  The top three at this meet will represent the US at the World Championships later this summer.

I'll post pics from the NCAA as soon as I receive them.