Track team sets 3 records in Sacramento
Three Utah State track and field athletes set school records Friday and Saturday at Sacramento State, kicking off the outdoor track season for the Aggies.
“It felt great,” Utah State Head Coach Greg Gensel said. “We wanted to go into this meet to find out where we are, find out if we were ready for the outdoor season. We found that out.”
Friday night, senior Mike Nielson set a school record in the 10,000-meter.
His time, 29 minutes 6.11 seconds, was good enough for 22nd at the invitational and was only six seconds off an automatic conference qualification.
Aggie women Tiffany Strickland and Lida Ripplinger also set records in each of their individual events.
In the Steeplechase, Strickland ran a 10:37.61 while Ripplinger broke the record in the 5,000-meter. Both times were good enough to qualify the women for regionals.
“Expect them to perform at their best at every meet, the best they’ve prepared,” Gensel said. “So far they’ve done that.”
Although they didn’t break school records, three other USU athletes earned a place at regionals.
Zack Lloyd threw his way to first place in the shot put with a throw of 17.69 meters.
Justin Wickard and Dustin Vetica each qualified for regionals for the Ags.
Wickard ran the 110-meter hurdles in 14.25, coming in first, while Vetica had a time of 52.47 in the 400-meter hurdles.
“I think the team is performing great, they’re doing some good things,” Gensel said. “Keep building on what they’ve accomplished they’ll just get better.”
The Ags also had first place finishes from Steve Strickland and the women’s 4-by-400 relay team.
“We have a pretty solid team,” Gensel said. “There are a lot of good athletes on the team.”
The Aggies will next travel to BYU Friday and Saturday. Gensel said the Ags are prepared for the teams that will be competing there and he said he would like to see improvement.
“We’re trying to improve on what we did on the previous week,” he said. “Whether that’s a better performance or just doing certain things better. We always want to improve.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu