USU racks up 29 top three finishes and eight wins at WSU meet
For most track athletes, the indoor season does not usually produce the best results. However, for the Utah State men’s and women’s track teams over the weekend, this was not the case. In their second indoor meet of the year, the Cougar Invitational hosted by Washington State in Pullman, Wash., the Aggies had 29 top-three finishes along with eight event victories. With those performances, both the men’s and women’s team won twice, beating Idaho and Montana, while losing to Washington State in the triple-dual team scoring system.
“The thing we try to do in our meets is continue to improve,” head coach Gregg Gensel said. “I told the team and my coaching staff that I don’t think I’ve seen a season open up with this many good marks from across the board. Our young people performed really well, as well as our veterans. It really excites me for what we have in store for the rest of the season.”
The two-day Cougar Invitational saw the Aggies off to a good start on Friday. USU had six top-three finishers and individual wins by junior Sonia Grabowska and sophomore Spencer Hall. Grabowska, who hails from Warsaw, Poland, won the pole vault, jumping 13-03.75 (4.06m), and Spencer Hall, from Kaysville, Utah took home the victory in the weight throw with a mark of 53-04.50 (16.27m).
Other notable performances from the day included talented freshman Chari Hawkins who was second in the pentathlon with 3,460 points, senior Lindsey Spencer finishing third in the weight throw with a personal best of 55-01.50 (16.80m), and junior Damian Szade posting a personal best in the long jump, finishing second and jumping 23-06.25 (7.17m).
“We had several people who PR(personal record)’d or are back to where they left off during outdoors last year,” coach Gensel said. “A good example of that is Damian in men’s long jump. He jumped over seven meters, and he didn’t do that until we got to outdoors last year, so that was a great accomplishment for him. I’m sure it’s a huge confidence builder.”
After a solid first day of competition, the Aggies came back even better on Saturday as they had 23 individuals finish in the top three of their events and six event champions.
The men had three champions in senior Armahd Lewis, who nearly replicated his PR performance from last week in the 60m dash with a time of 6.81, senior Clint Silcock, who won the high jump for the second week in a row clearing 6-10.75 (2.10m), and junior Chio Lopez, running in his first meet of the season, won the 3000m run in a time of 8:25.52.
On the women’s side, Juniors Katelyn Heiner and Spela Hus both won their respective events. Heiner took first in the 400m with a time of 56.50 and Hus won the shot put throwing 44-11.50 (13.70m).
The last event titles brought home by USU were the men’s and women’s 4×400 meter relay teams. The men’s team, which included freshman Parker Bluth, Jake Peterson, Tanner Hunt and sophomore Tyler Killpack broke the tape in 3:22.36 to win, while sophomore Aubrie Haymore and juniors Jessie Nielson, Katelyn Heiner, and Kylie Hirschi made up the women’s team that won in a time of 3:53.83.
“There were a lot of great performances both on the men’s and women’s side,” Gensel said. “Even though we had some people perform last week, we didn’t take the whole team, so it wasn’t a very big showing. We had some good performances, but not from everybody, so this was our first main competition and I am excited with what I saw.”
After a slew of impressive performances in the early going of the season, the Aggies look to continue their momentum as they head to the Bronco Invitational in Boise next weekend.
– mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu