The U men’s and women’s track teams opened the 2004 outdoor season with a strong showing last weekend at the Sacramento State Hornet Invitational in Sacramento, Calif.
The Utes brought home a remarkable seven gold medals from a meet featuring four other schools. Among those in competition was the perennial national powerhouse BYU Cougars, along with Chico State, UC-Davis and Sacramento State.
Head track coach Lisa Archer was enthusiastic about her team’s phenomenal opening performance. She explained that while this meet was not one that the Utes were priming themselves for their best performances, many U athletes ended up with terrific times and scores.
“We were really excited,” Archer said.
“We performed a little bit above our expectations because we trained through this event,” she continued. “We didn’t lighten anyone’s load to hit a really good mark, but we had some athletes really step up anyway.”
Four U women notched first place finishes at the Hornet Invitational.
Sophomore Vanessa Mortenson won the hammer throw, senior Tracy Hamblin won the pole vault, junior Jen Jackman won the gold in the 400-meter hurdles and freshman Jennie Haertel came in first in the steeplechase.
More importantly, three U women qualified for the regional meet with their scores from last weekend. Hamblin and Mortenson both qualified with their wins, and freshman Amanda Feigt qualified for the high jump with a third-place finish.
“We had three women qualify for the regional meet,” Archer said, “and we were thrilled. We knew they would all end up qualifying, but we didn’t expect it to happen in the first meet of the year.”
Ultimately, Archer hopes to qualify somewhere between 10 and 15 female athletes for the regional meet.
The usually less successful men’s team bucked the trend at the Hornet Invitational with three gold medals.
Senior Jeff Davidson won the steeplechase, while senior Nephi Tyler took the 1,500 meters and junior Delfino Arevelo was victorious in the 5,000 meters.
“It was awesome to see the men perform so well,” Archer said.
With a great start, the Utes have set the bar high for the rest of the outdoor season.
“This meet sets a great tone for the rest of the season,” Archer said. “It’s always fun to have a strong opening meet. We can take the next few weeks now to improve so that we are as strong as possible at the conference championships.”