Track teams make strong showing at Irvine meet
The USU men’s track team earned second and the women’s team finished third out of six teams at the University of California at Irvine Spring Break Invitational Saturday.
Cornell took first in both the men’s and women’s contests with scores of 290 and 312 respectively. The Aggie men finished with a score of 272 and the women earned 254.5 points.
Head coach Gregg Gensel said he was impressed with how the athletes performed in spite of bad weather.
“The thing I like about this team is that even though the conditions weren’t ideal, they just competed and went after it,” he said. “We had some gutsy performances.”
He said despite the conditions, both the men and women had some great finishes.
“We had a lot of [personal records] and qualifying marks for the Big West Conference Meet,” he said. “We also had a lot of first-place finishes.”
Brick Bergeson, James Parker and Anthony Stewart led the men, each earning two individual first-place finishes. Bergeson won the 800 and 1500-meter runs with times of one minute, 51.4 seconds and 3:49.38, respectively.
Parker dominated the shot put and discus with distances of 57-7.75 and 171-1 and Stewart took both the 100 and 200 with times of 10.73 and 21.49.
Brett Guymon won the 400 with a time of 52.33 and finished third in 110-meter hurdles, while Niel Warr won the javelin with a throw of 210-1. Tim Sparks earned second in the hammer throw, and Steve Prescott took third in the 5000.
Gensel said Jake Geyer also competed well, taking fifth in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:34.03.
On the women’s side, Danielle Kot won both the 200 and 400 with times of 24.21 and 55.27, respectively, and Heather Smith took first in the 100- meter high hurdles with a time of 14.47 and second in the 400-meter hurdles.
Katie Farner won the javelin with a toss of 129-6 and finished second in the high jump, while Debra Baker took the pole vault with a jump of 11-7.75. Rebekah Thornley also had a first-place finish, winning the 1500 with a time of 4:33.01.
Candice Workman earned second in the discus and third in the shot put, while Jessica Owen finished second in the hammer throw.
“We had some people do some great things as far as competition is concerned,” Gensel said. “That improvement is what I like to see.”
The team will see action next against Weber State University in a dual meet in Ogden April 14.