Eight tracksters win events at Tuscon meet
Eight different Utah State track and field athletes won titles in their events over the weekend at the Willie Williams Classic and Dave Murray Distance Carnival at Roy P. Drachman Stadium in Tucson, Ariz.
Juniors Ruth Hilton and Daniel Howell won the women’s and men’s steeplechase, and seniors Eric Larson and Clint Silcock won the 1500-meter and high jump, respectively, on day one of the competition. On Saturday, junior Joe Canavan won the shot put, senior Jason Holt won the 800-meter race and sophomores Amber Thompson and Bri Campbell won the pole vault and high jump.
Hilton was the only female Aggie in the field when she beat Arizona’s Erin Menefee, who finished in second place by 30 seconds. Hilton won the steeplechase with a time of 10:46.12. Howell won the men’s race in 9:16.51, finishing 12 seconds ahead of teammates Steve Atkinson and Aaron Clements to complete the one-two-three sweep.
“Really when you consider that we’ve come from indoors to outdoors,” head coach Gregg Gensel said. “We haven’t really had an opportunity to practice on an outdoor track because it’s been too cold in Logan, I think we did exceptionally well and represented well at this meet.”
Larson beat out senior distance runner Hunter Nelson by just less than a second to win the 1500-meters in a time of 3:51.84. Holt beat Arizona’s Jason Mara by one second in the 800-meters with a time of 1:52.74 to win the race.
Silcock won the men’s high jump with a height of 2.11 meters (6-11.00) to finish ahead of sophomore teammate Eric Follet, who jumped 1.96 (6-05.00). Campbell won the women’s with a final height of 1.65 meters (5-05.00) ahead of junior jumper Madison Jensen at 1.60 (5-03.00).
Thompson tied with Arizona’s Alexandra Weatherly to win the pole vault at 3.55 meters (11-07.75).
Canavan won the shot put with a throw of 17.59m (57-08.50).
Gensel said other notable performances included senior sprinter Ahrmad Lewis, who finished with times of 10.63 and 21.88 in the 100- and 200-meters, as well as freshman Tanner Hunt out of Sky View High School, who took fourth in the 400-meter in 48.40.
The meet featured the return of a few Aggie athletes who had been out of action with injuries or redshirted during the indoor season, including Canavan, who competed in the hammer throw as well as winning the shot put at the meet. Junior multi-eventer Jon Goble, who has been out with a foot injury, was also present for the 200-meter and javelin.
Among those notably not competing was junior pole vaulter Sonia Grabowska, who is redshirting the 2011 outdoor season to finish her degree in exercise science before returning to compete in both indoor and outdoor seasons next year.
Gensel said he wanted to see where all of his athletes are at in their events at this meet.
“This is what this meet is all about,” Gensel said. “We want to see where everybody’s at and give them a chance to work out for a couple weeks and then we’ll go to Albuquerque and have hopefully another good meet and improve a little bit.”
The Aggies look to continue a tradition of dominance in conference after winning the men’s indoor WAC title and finishing second by one point in the women’s. They will next travel to Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday, April 1 for a meet at New Mexico State University.
USU’s only home meet will be the Mark Faldmo Invitational on Saturday, April 16, at the Ralph Maughan Track Stadium in Logan.
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu