There’s no place like home
Competing on familiar turf gave the USU track and field team a definite advantage as the Aggies posted 19 first-place finishes and several regional qualifying times Saturday at the Mark Faldmo Invitational.
“The thing you want to do at a home meet is perform well and make sure that you’re doing things well in front of a home crowd,” USU track and field Head Coach Gregg Gensel said. “We knew going in that this wasn’t going to be a very deep meet, and we just got the chance to be better. They did a good job. They were fired up and ready to go.”
Top scores were earned on both the running and field side. Amber Peterson, a senior who competes in the open 200-meters, the 4×100-meters, the 100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles, placed first in three of her events.
In the 100-meter hurdles she posted a time of 14.08, significantly lower than her personal best of 13.94. Peterson said she did not have a good race in the 100-meters on Saturday but is hoping to qualify for the regional meet. The qualifying time for the 100-meters is 13.92, just a hundredth of a second faster than Peterson’s best time. Peterson also took first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.88.
In the 400-meter hurdles, Peterson’s main event, she improved her NCAA Regional Qualifying mark – as she had already qualified at the Stanford meet – and personal best with a time of 58.62, a time that launched her into second place in the USU record books.
“I had a huge (personal record) today,” Peterson said. “It’s like the best feeling in the world. It’s like cloud nine. I can’t believe it really happened. It’s a great feeling.”
Peterson said before she finishes her career at USU, she has plenty she wants to get done.
“I really want to run a 57.00 this year in the 400-meter hurdles and basically just qualify for Nationals again and be more up on the regional list than I was last year. Because last year I made it fourth and it was a close race. It will be a really tough race to get to (Nationals) again but 57.00 is my goal, and be conference champion.”
Jennifer Twitchell, a senior who was named All-American in cross country earlier this season, earned her second qualifying time this year in as many events. Having solidified a trip to the regional meet in the 1,500-meters, her main event, she snagged a regional qualifying time in the 800-meters as well. Her time of 2:10.35, with the conversion factor, qualifies for the regional meet.
Twitchell said the 800-meter is not her main event but she was tired of running the 1,500-meter so many times in a row, so she tried the 800-meters.
“It feels pretty good,” Twitchell said of her qualifying time. “It’s not my main event, (so) it’s kind of something unexpected. It’s a big personal record. Based on my 1,500-meter times, I should be able to run this kind of an 800-meters, but I just never have so it’s kind of always been one of those things I should be able to do, so it’s nice I was able to do it.”
Even though Twitchell was absent from the 1,500-meters, USU still placed on top as junior distance runner Stacie Lifferth placed first with a time of 4:37.80, senior Caroline Berry claimed second and freshman Alexis Meyer took third.
Twitchell said she was happy her teammates were able to place high in the 1,500-meters.
“That was awesome because they tried it a little last week and there was a little mishap with one of our runners,” Twitchell said. “We all do the training, so it’s really awesome when everybody can be successful and get their personal records. It’s great for the whole team.”
In the men’s running events, USU dominated with multiple first-place finishes. Freshman distance runner Tony Jones took first in the 1,500-meters with a time of 3:55.67 and was followed closely by fellow teammate Ben Kessen who claimed a time of 3:57.59.
In the men 110-meter hurdles, senior Scott Bell took first with a time of 14.51, and senior sprinter DJ Smith finished the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.58 to claim the top spot. Senior Dasheek Akwenye finished first in the 400-meters with a time of 48.46 while junior Brett Knighton was just behind with a time of 48.61. Senior Vance Twitchell took first in the 5000-meter with a time of 15.14.10, well ahead of all his competitors.
“It’s always nice to be at home because it’s more comfortable and you practice here every day,” Gensel said. “Being at home, they’re comfortable with their surroundings so it’s easier for them to forget about everything else and focus on their racing. We had a lot of people that did really good in that today.”
The field teams also performed well at the meet and set some personal bests. Freshman Casey Parker had an NCAA Regional Qualifying mark in the high jump at a height of 6-10.75, which was his lifetime best and the current leading mark in the Western Athletic Conference.
“He’s been able to do this all year, just hasn’t been able to do it for one thing or another that happened – his ankle might be hurting from when he dislocated it or whatever,” Gensel said of Parker. “Today he put it all together. After his first jump at the opening height, (he said,) ‘Coach I was lazy on top.’ I says, ‘No. You just did it right and it was effortless.'”
Junior Chase Taylor set a personal best in the javelin with a mark of 205-04, almost 10 feet farther than his previous best. Senior Kevin Liu took first place in the shot put with a throw of 52-06.50 and also earned first place in the discus throw with a mark of 159-02. Kerry Shephard set a personal best in the hammer with a mark of 181-08, which was nearly 21 feet farther than his previous best. He only needed to improve 9 inches on the throw to qualify for Regionals.
Junior Carrie Yost claimed the top spot in the women’s high jump with a jump of 5-05.00. Senior pole vaulter Kathryn Duhadway earned a NCAA Regional Qualifying mark with a height of 12-06. This marks the second straight year Duhadway has qualified for Regionals.
“It’s a good thing,” she said of her qualifying mark. “Having done it one year, I wanted to do it again. I expect more out of myself this year.”
Gensel said he was pleased with the effort of his team and the progress they are making.
“My expectations is to be able to perform at the top when it counts – which is at the WAC championships and see what happens. One thing I do know about track and field is you can’t control what other people do or don’t do, but you can control what you do. That’s what I tell the kids – just each one of you take care of your own business and collectively it will be a great team effort. And that’s the way it happens every year.”
-sethhawkins@cc.usu.edu