USU track places two at UCLA
The Utah State track and field athletes competed in the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational held at UCLA Friday and Saturday.
The Aggies had only two athletes place first in their individual events, but it wasn’t for lack of good performances.
“It was a lot bigger meet,” thrower Zack Lloyd said. “There were a lot of fast and good people there.”
For the first time in three weeks, Lloyd did not break his own school record – something he said might have been able to do if he had done better warming up. Lloyd finished fourth in the shot put and qualified for regionals in the discus.
Tiffany Strickland and Katie Thatcher were the lone Aggies on top of the podium over the weekend.
Strickland set a new school recored in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase while Thatcher was the top finisher in the 400-meter hurdles. Freshman Stacie Lifferth finished second in the steeplechase with the third fastest time in the Utah State record book.
“I think a lot of people were really excited about being at UCLA,” Aggie Jill Steele said. “Overall, we had some awesome performances and people really had a good feeling after the meet. It was a good meet. It was fun to be around some Olympians and some very good athletes.”
Utah State Head Coach Greg Gensel said there were several former Olympians competing at the meet and other athletes there that were Olympic-quality. But, he said, the Aggies were not intimidated.
“We talked about it before,” he said, “and I think most of the kids took it as a challenge ‘I’m running with the best, that makes me good too. They may not have beat them, but they’re running with them. I felt pretty good about it.”
“I think it always helps to have better competition,” Steele said. “When you run against fast people, you run fast. It was a good preview to see some of the girls we’ll be racing against in conference.”
Steele had a personal best time in the 800 meters, running to third place with a time of 2 minutes 9.61 second.
“We have a good young team and a team that’s improving,” Gensel said. “We’ve got time to do things.”
The Aggies will next host the Mark Faldmo Inviational Saturday in Logan, the lone home meet the Aggies will host this season. Gensel said Utah State only has one because it is difficult to get teams to come to Logan.
But, he said he hopes the meet will give the team more exposure and that the Aggies will continue to improve.
“Everybody is kind of excited to get out there and run in our own little town and in front of family and friends and show people that there is a track team at USU,” Steele said. “I think it will be a good chance for everybody to go out and have fun.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu