The weekend was time well spent for Utah’s track and field team, which spent Friday and Saturday competing at the Mountain State Games in Pocatello, Idaho. The competition paid off for the Utes, as they came away with two event champions and steady performances across the field.
“Overall, it was a pretty good weekend for the team,” said head coach Kyle Kepler.
Friday consisted mostly of qualifying heats in the track events for Saturday’s finals. Freshmen Angela Kaplar and Alyssa Johnson set new personal bests in their respective events in the 60-meter hurdles and the 200-meter dash.
Kaplar finished the preliminaries for hurdles in first place with a time of 8.75 seconds, which ranks third on Utah’s all-time performance list. On Saturday, Kaplar earned second place in the race with the same time. Cassie Merkley from Idaho State took first with a time of 8.62 seconds.
Freshman Nikkie Rudder took fourth place, and senior Sarah Grimm took 10th in the shot put Friday. Rudder had a throw of 44 meters and 1.25 centimeters, and Grimm threw 38 meters 10.25 centimeters.
Sophomore Brianna LeRoy competed in the pentathlon Friday for the first time this season. LeRoy took second place in the high jump and long jump and came in fourth in the 60-meter hurdles. In the shot put, she tied for 10th place with a mark of 32 meters. Despite a 15th-place finish in the 800-meter, she earned third place with a total of 3,419 points.
Saturday, sophomore Langley Iverson won the high jump, and freshman Amanda Mergaert won the 800-meter invitational run. Iverson had a height of 5 feet 8 inches—a new personal record—in the high jump to earn first place. In the 800-meter invitational, Mergaert had a time of 2 minutes 14.51 seconds for first place.
“(Mergaert) ran a really smart race,” said Kepler. “She ran a race that isn’t what you typically see from most freshmen. She was able to get the wind coming off of the last turn and (earn a personal best) in the process.”
In the other middle distant event, the 400-meter, the Utes also made some strong top-10 finishes. In the invitational 400-meter, freshman Lauryn McKay came in fourth place, and senior Whitney Wellington finished in ninth place with respective times of 57:84 and 59:69.
In the open 400-meter, Nikki Dotter earned fourth place with a time of a 1 minute 14 seconds.
Freshman Chantel Hunt and junior Alexis Davis set new personal bests in the open mile run. Hunt had a time of 5:37.3 for ninth place and Davis finished in 5:47.85 for 12th place.
In the three kilometer race, Utah had three freshmen—Kacee Hildebrandt, Rachel Schmalzle and Hilary Troutner—earn top-10 finishes. Hildebrandt earned sixth place with a time of 11:1.38, and Schmalzle finished in 11:2.38. Troutner finished 10th with a time of 11:27.07.
In the women’s weight throw, Grimm earned second place with a mark of 56 meters 7.5 centimeters.
As Utah prepares to compete in two meets—Iowa State Classic and Husky Invitational—this coming weekend, getting healthy will be a top priority as the team faces several injuries and illnesses.
“We have to get healthy this week in preparation for the big meet in Seattle that most of our team will be going to,” Kepler said.
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