Track and Field set new school records
This weekend Utah State track and field broke two school records, with senior distance runner Dillon Maggard and junior thrower Brenn Flint pushing onward with outstanding individual seasons.
Maggard participated in the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa, running the 5,000-meter race. The senior came in second place, just crossing the line one second behind the 2017 NCAA cross country individual national champion, in a school-record time of 13:40.59. Not only did Maggard shatter the school record by nearly 24 seconds, he set the second fastest time in Mountain West history and is the only Aggie to run this distance in under 14 minutes. After this past weekend, Maggard owns the indoor track and field records in the mile (4:01.25), 3,000 (7:52.99) and now the 5,000.
While in Albuquerque at the Don Kirby Invitational, Brenn Flint yet again set the school’s shot put record with another shot of 16.53 meters. Flint has become the only woman Aggie to surpass 16-meter mark in the indoor shot put, and has done it already three times previously this season.
Also running at the Iowa State Classic was senior sprinter Clay Lambourne, taking sixth in the 800-meter race in a time of 1:48.44. The time sets as a personal best for Lambourne and places second in all-time school history, only behind NCAA national champion and former Olympian Mark Enyeart.
Both senior Tylee Newman-Skinner and junior Cierra Simmons earned top-five all-time USU marks with taking 16th and 17th in the mile with times of 4:50.15 and 4:50.64.
In Albuquerque, the women’s 4×400 relay team posted the seventh fastest time in Aggie history with a finishing time of 3:44.34, placing them in sixth.
For the men, freshman distance runner Stokton Smith took first in the 3,000-meter with a personal-best of 8:29.93, while junior Kody Gould and sophomore Luke Beattie set PR’s to take fourth and fifth places with times of 8:38.69 and 8:34.77.
In the men’s shot put, senior David Hirschmann made a new PR with a throw of 17.62 meters to put him in fourth.
At the Saturday-only Bronco Challenge in Nampa, Idaho, senior Kelsey Yamauchi-Richins took the 5,000-meter title with a personal-best time in 17:12.93, just above equal senior Jackie Heaps, who took second with a time of 18:24.80.
Freshman and winner of the long jump, Whitney Skabelund attempted her first try at the event this season with a jump of 5.49 meters. Bailey Maseda, a freshman, was Utah State’s top finisher in the triple with a personal-best of 11.34m.
In the men’s category, junior James Withers snatched first in the 5,000, finishing in 14:37.22. Junior Leaugen Fray won the long jump in the field games with a distance of 7.31m, while fellow junior and pole vaulter Sam Nelson cleared a 5.00-meter height to win the event and tie his PR.
Utah State will be back in action at the 2018 Mountain West Indoor Championships taking place Thursday through Sunday, Feb. 22-24 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.