Indoor track enjoys successful meet at Idaho State
Justin Wickard led the Aggies at the Mountain States Games in Pocatello, Idaho, Friday and Saturday as he won three events, more than any other athlete at the invitational.
“Justin Wickard had a great day,” Head Coach Gregg Gensel said. “He won the 55-meter dash (6.46 seconds), the 55 hurdles (7.57) and the long jump (23’2″).”
Utah State University competed against athletes from Idaho State University, Montana State University, BYU, the University of Utah, Weber State University and Southern Utah University, as well as against unattached individual athletes.
Though no team scores were kept, the Aggies came away with 21 top-five finishes in individual events.
“To be honest, I think this was about as good as I could have expected the meet to go,” Gensel said.
On the men’s team, other top-five finishers in the running events were Anthony Stewart, who finished second in the 200 and third in the 55; Dwayne Foster, who earned second in the 55; Scott Bell, who took fourth in the 55-meter hurdles and Dusan Hlubocky, who finished fifth in the 3,000.
In the field events, Maurice Jenkins earned second and set a personal record with a pole vault of 17’0.75″ – the third best vault in USU history. Jenkins’ mark was good enough to provisionally qualify him for the NCAA Nationals.
Joel Johnson also set a personal record with his second-place finish in the pentathlon. His score of 7,753 points is the third-best mark in Aggie history in that event.
In the high jump, Tate Sorenson and Robert Crockett took second and third, respectively, and Demario Franklin earned fifth in the long jump.
In the throwing events, Josh Sides earned second in the shot put and fourth in the weight throw.
Sandra Reategui, Kristi Connors and Candice Workman led the women’s team, each with a second-place finish. Reategui finished second in the 200 with a time of 24.5, Connors second in the 400 in 55.11 and Workman in the shot put with a throw of 32’4″ – only 4inches behind the winner.
“Sometimes it makes getting a personal record bitter-sweet if the athlete does really well but doesn’t win,” Gensel said. “I think Kristi and Sandra are probably a little disappointed, but they did really well.”
Other top-finishers on the women’s team were Christi Howell, who earned third in the mile, and Debra Barker, who finished fourth in the pole vault.
The Aggies will compete at ISU again Saturday in the Idaho State Quadrangular. Saturday’s meet will mark the third time this season USU has competed in a meet in Pocatello.
USU’s next home meet isn’t until the outdoor track season Apr. 20 when it hosts the Mark Faldmo Invitational.