Aggies host Mark Faldmo Invitational
Utah State’s men’s and women’s track team hosted seven teams in the Mark Faldmo Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
Utah State had a strong showing in their only home meet of the year with 16 first-place finishes and 36 top-three finishes.
“Any time you can have a home meet, good weather and athletes that are producing good times, it makes for a great meet to watch,” said Utah State head coach Gregg Gensel. “I came into the home meet asking myself where is the team as far as development goes, and all of the sudden we get great weather, and our team has great performances to set us up for the championship part of the season.”
The first day consisted of men’s and women’s 3,000 meter, men’s and women’s javelin, women’s pole vault and concluded with men’s and women’s hammer throw.
Junior Kade Jensen won the men’s 3,000 m (9:08.37) with three Aggies following him to claim the top four spots. Sophomore Mitch Pettitt (9:16.21), junior Jacob Barton (9:30.06) and freshman Justin Sheets (9:36.09) also finished in the top five in the 3,000 meter. Sophomore Devin Wright won the men’s javelin with a distance of 61.46 meters.
Senior Amber Thompson placed second in women’s pole vault at a height of 3.50 meters. Junior Maci Bingham won the women’s hammer throw with a distance of 57.86 meters. Senior Melanie Heslop (57.63 meters) and sophomore Shelby Jordan (49.46 meters) finished in second and third to complete the sweep of the hammer throw. Sophomore Mia Estes (44.75 meters) and freshman Stephanie Crapse (40.07 meters) placed first and second in women’s javelin.
Utah State finished the Mark Faldmo Invitational on Saturday with 10 first-place finishes and 25 top-three finishes.
Maci Bingham was the stand-out performer of the weekend, as she took first place in the hammer throw (57.86 meters), shot put (14.15 meters) and discus (51.29 meters). Other women’s first place finishers were senior Laycee Elliott in the 400 meter hurdles (1:01.62), sophomore Bethani Talbot in the high jump (1.65 meters) and sophomore Kayla Lee in the triple jump (11.90 meters).
Men’s first place finishers consisted of senior Nic Bowens in the 100 meter dash (10.37), sophomore Landon Watts in the 400 meter (48.75), senior Eric Shellhorn in the 800 meter (1:50.19), freshman Jordan Beutler in the 1500 meter (3:55.05), senior Dan Mosman in the 400 meter hurdles (53.13) and freshman Kyler Wightman in the long jump (7.01 meters).
Utah State will head to Berkeley, California to compete in the California Invitational April 24-25.
— joebaraiolo@gmail.com
Twitter: @joefish_2