Utah Spring Twilight

Saturday, April 21

Salt Lake City

All Day

University of Utah

Utah Spring Twilight

4/21/2007 12:00 AM | Track & Field

The University of Utah had a great showing this past weekend as they hosted the Utah Spring Twilight and clinched wins in 11 of 18 events. Senior Susan Atwater the third Ute to qualify for the NCAA regionals as she hit a mark of 12-05.50 in the pole vault. With that mark she was able to finish first followed by teammate Laryssa Simpson who jumped 10-11.75. Atwater also finished third in the high jump with a height of 5-03.25.

Other Utes who had outstanding performances were Alyssa Abbott and Chelsea Shapard. They just missed their NCAA regional qualifying marks by less than a second. Abbott finished first in the 800m run with a time of 2:11.51 with Shapard right behind finishing second with 2:11.70, respectively. The two 4x100 relay teams finished one and two. Team A consisting of Liza Whitehead, Ashley Patterson, Candice Mannion, and Haley McAllister, finished with a time of 46.90 while team B consisting Jen Cutrer, Whitney Wellington, Kelsi Maires, and Jazmin Dickey, finished with a time of 46.95. Amanda Feigt continues to improve as she ran her third NCAA regional qualifying mark in the 400m hurdles and placed first with a time of 1:00.50. Following Feigt in the 400m hurdles were Chelsey Kaplar (2nd, 1:04.16) and Jessica Suddaby (3rd, 1:04.89).

"The 800 meter race was really two totally different races. Shapard (running her first 800 meter race since high school) went out very hard, backed off in the middle, and then had a nice kick at the end. Abbott was patient and ran a more conservative race holding back until about 300 meters to go before making a break and hanging on for the victory. It was great to see two of our younger athletes push each other that way," remarked Kepler.

Kepler continued, "We have about six athletes who could be on the 4x100 meter relay right now. Coach Bockman wanted to run two teams that would be evenly matched to give us a better idea of who could do what. I'm not sure if he learned a whole lot more than he already knew as they all ran very well and were only separated by .05 seconds. We'll just have to continue to see how practice goes and what combination we believe will ultimately work the best together."

Other top performances came from Haley McAllister as she finished first in the long jump (19-02.75, PR), Liza Whitehead placed first in the 100m dash (12.51), and the Utes went one-two-three in the triple jump led by Ashley Patterson (38-06.00), Mandie Rowell (37-04.50), and Sarah McFee (36-07.00). Jennifer Cutrer also had a first-place finish in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.61, and Chelsea DiGrazia and Kellie Anderson placed first and second in the 3000m run with times of 10:25.07 and 10:52.66, respectively.

The throwers had a great meet as well, led by Sarah Cardinal who placed first in the discus (140-00), second in the shot put (43-01.00), and fifth in the hammer throw (155-08). Becky Riddle placed second in the disc with a distance of 139-09 and fourth in the hammer with a throw of 167-02.

The Utes continue to break PR's and set new all-time University of Utah top-ten marks as they chalked up 14 new PR's and eight more all-time top-ten performances. The Utes have had a total of 84 new PR's and 38 new top ten marks this season.

"Overall, I was very pleased with how the meet went. Our meet officials and volunteers did a tremendous job to keep the meet running smoothly. To dominate the way we did was also very impressive. The other teams were not at full strength for various reasons, but our kids still came out and competed hard regardless of whom else was or was not in the competition with them. Hopefully, we will get that meet to grow in future years."

Next weekend the Utes will split up at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa and the Robison Invitational at BYU.