Over the weekend, the women’s track and field team competed at the two-day Baldy Castillo Invitational, led by a top performance in the 800-meter run on the final day by seniors Andrea Chavez (2:07.48) and Ali Eisenbeiss (2:08.39). The duo captured the top two spots of the event.
“I think it went really well,” Eisenbeiss said. “Overall, we performed really well, and I think we are headed in the right direction for this season.”
Head coach Kyle Kepler was happy with the way his team performed over the weekend in the first meet of the outdoor season.
“This was a pretty typical beginning of the year meet,” Kepler said. “I thought our seniors did a pretty good job, and I think some of our freshmen gave some great effort.”
On the first day, five Utes ran in the 1,500-meter run, led by another senior in Nikki Rietz, who finished 13th with a 4:34.22. Teammate sophomore Sadie Wassum competed in this event alongside her teammates, finishing 23rd with a personal best at 4:42.44, followed by freshman Caitlin Faust, who finished 28th (4:46.12).
In the 400-meter dash, junior Alissa Atisme placed fourth with a 55.64 second lap, as Eliza Hansen placed fourth in the high jump at 1.55 meters.
Utah had an impressive race in the 3,000-meter event, as well, taking second through fourth places. First was senior Kate Stringfellow (10:08.42), followed by senior Jocelyn Todd (10:10.65), sophomore Shaylen Crook (10:24.10) and senior Susannah Hurst Spencer (10:34.54).
In the last two events, junior Christine Van Brocklin placed fifth in the 400-meter hurdle event, while the team of Faust, Rietz, Wassumand Grossman ran a 9:28.11 in the 4×800-meter relay.
“We are training really hard and training through these meets instead of training for them,” Kepler said. “We had several solid efforts, but we’ll see how things progress in the next couple of weeks.”
Up next, the Utes will head to San Diego, Calif. to compete at the San Diego State Aztec Invitational on Thursday.
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