The Utah women’s track and field team hosted its first and lone meet of the season on Friday in the Utah Spring Classic, and head coach Kyle Kepler thinks it was a success.
“I think the meet went off great,” Kepler said. “The weather held up, so I’ll take credit for that. When the weather’s crappy, I don’t. Overall, I thought our kids competed hard and we capped it off tonight with a dismic flushing of a school record.”
The highlight of the meet came at the very end when Alissa Atisme shattered a school record in the process of coming in fourth place in the women’s 100-meter dash, causing several of her teammates to rush to her side to bombard her with congratulations.
“I feel so good, it’s so exciting,” Atisme said. “Last week was so rough and it was just so good to run fast finally. It’s just really rewarding having that home-track advantage and being able to do it here in front of all my friends and family and support staff.”
Atisme also finished in third in the 200-meter dash. She said last year at this time, she was disappointed in herself, but is now completely confident in what she accomplished on Friday night..
“I’m glad I was able to clear my head and this is the only home meet of the season, of the year,” Atisme said. “I’m just really glad I was able to pull things out today.”
Kepler and several of the athletes on the team agree it was great being able to compete at home for a change. Jessica Sams, who finished first in the 3000-meter run, loved seeing other athletes come out to the McCarthey Family Track and Field.
“I love the home meets,” Sams said. “It’s fun to see all of out fellow Utes out here supporting us too because they don’t really get to see a lot of track meets because we’re always on the road.”
Aside from the home crowd, Sams thinks they had a great plan going into Friday’s meet and was happy to see it hold up.
“We just tried to go out as a team and strategically run the first half really smooth and the second half just try and get some turnover going,” Sams said. “We all worked together and it was a good pact. We did exactly what we wanted to today.”
Judging her personal performance, Sams knows she didn’t run her best, but this was not her goal. She wanted to familiarize herself with the five-kilometer race and rest up for the next couple meets.
“I did really well,” Sams said. “It’s not close to my PR, but being at altitude, it’s kind of hard to run distance races fast and so I did what I about wanted to time-wise, and I felt really good.”
Utah had another meet at Weber State on Saturday, but the Utes main focus is on the road meets next week when they travel to California for the Mt. SAC Relays on Thursday and the Bryan Clay Invitational on Friday.
Kepler said some athletes may simply need to rest before hitting the track again, but others may need to continue to push themselves harder.
“[We’ll] take advantage of [the] multiple meet situation out there,” Kepler said. “Just got to figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are and make sure they’re as good as they can be at the end of the year.”
Sams said she has a few things to brush up on before they leave.
“I’m really trying to focus on getting more turnover and more speed,” Sams said. I’m really trying to drop my time and qualify for regionals in the 5K.”
Although Atisme was beaming on Friday after her win, she’s looking for ways to run even faster, topping Friday night’s performance.
“Just don’t let it get to my head because I know I still have a lot to work on,” Atisme said. “Just keep performing well in practice and it will translate to the track later on.”
Other notables from Friday’s meet include Destanae Howerton-Davis finishing first in the women’s shot put, Ilse Kaaja taking first in the women’s hammer throw and Lauren Mills placing second behind Sams in the women’s 3000-meter run.
@kbrenneisen