The Utes’ track and field team split up to compete in two events last weekend and had solid results in both.
Utah throwers excelled in Pocatello, Idaho at the Mountain State Games, while the distance runners got their first chance to compete in Seattle, Wash. at the Washington Invitational.
“I thought we got a lot of good things accomplished,” said Utes head coach Kyle Kepler.
Senior Nikkie Rudder led Utah in Pocatello, as she captured first in both the shot put and weight throw. She produced a throw of 47 feet, 3.75 inches in the shot put and 57-04.2 feet in the weight throw.
“It wasn’t a very big meet,” Rudder said. “But it is always nice to get a win.”
Freshman Kassie Nagel followed Rudder in the shot put with a throw of 42 feet, 4 inches, which landed her in seventh.
In the weight throw, Rudder had two teammates join her in the Top 10. Junior Aoife Hickey threw 56-05.5 feet to take third while Nagel finished ninth with a throw of 48-09.4 feet.
Rudder has set some high goals for herself this season, as she said she would like to throw over 50 feet in the shot put every time she competes.
As far as track is concerned, Utah started off strong in Seattle, as the team of junior Nikki Rietz, senior Stephanie Jolley and freshmen Dana Snell and Becky Sarmiento were able to take fourth in the distance medley with a time of 12:04.70.
The biggest achievements from the distance runners came in the 3000-meter races, where five Utes posted personal bests. In the invitational race, junior Rebekah Winterton beat her previous personal best by 15 seconds with a time of 9:37.59. Junior Susannah Hurst’s time of 9:38.82 was six seconds faster than her previous personal best. The two came in 18th and 19th, as well as third and fourth on the Utes’ all-time list.
In the 3000-meter open race, junior Lauren Mills posted a personal best as well with a time of 10:32.84, taking 14th. Junior AuraLea Fain placed fourth in the race, followed by freshman Jessica Sams who took ninth.
Rietz got another personal best in the open mile race. Her time of 4:59.39 was the first time she has finished the race in under five minutes.
The Seattle meet was the first chance for Kepler to see how his distance runners would perform against others. The workouts for the distance team have been mainly strength-based rather than running, but Kepler was pleased with how his team competed.
“Most kids are right about where I thought they were based on their training,” Kepler said.
Utah will next head to the Bronco Invitational at Boise State this coming Saturday. Kepler said he will bring most of the team, but not all.
“We’ll probably leave a few kids at home,” Kepler said. “Some of our better kids don’t need to race.”
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