WAC champions
Saturday afternoon after three days of competition, the Aggie women’s track and field team was crowned Western Athletic Conference indoor champions. After losing to Idaho by one point last spring, the victory was a welcomed one.
“The term I would use is probably satisfaction,” said head coach Gregg Gensel. “They’ve come pretty close in the past to winning and just fell short. This year we were finally able to put the exclamation point on it and win it.”
The final score put the Aggie women in first place with 144 points — 34 points more than Idaho, in second place.
Gensel said it was a team effort and every athlete contributed to the overall win.
“Track and field is a bunch of individuals doing individual events, but, collectively, they are a team, and we proved that today,” he said.
The Aggie women scored in every event, something that has not happened in years past.
Sophomore Kylie Hirschi noted the special feeling of team unity felt at the meet.
“The whole team was very positive, everyone was very supportive,” Hirschi said. “We all wanted it really bad, and we were all just pumping each other up. That’s hard to come by in track because it’s an individual sport, but today it was very team oriented.”
Sophomore Chari Hawkins, the high point scorer of the team, said every point scored in every event was important.
“Everybody has to do their part because at any moment a mess-up in any event can cost us the meet,” she said. “Everybody cheers for everybody. We all want each other to do our best so we can take the conference title — that’s the ultimate goal.”
Hawkins won the pentathlon and placed in the top five in the high jump and 60-meter hurdles. Senior Sonia Grabowska also performed notably, as she claimed her second WAC indoor championship in the pole vault Friday afternoon.
Following closely behind Grabowska, Amber Thompson took second and Rachelle St. Jeor placed fourth for a near sweep in the pole vault.
Katelyn Heiner won the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.08 seconds and helped the women’s 4×400 relay claim the top spot along with teammates Bailee Whitworth, Aubrie Haymore and Hirschi.
Whitworth also placed second in the 200 and seventh in the 60, and Hirschi claimed third place in the 800 with an indoor personal best time of 2:10.78.
Other athletes with notable performances include Rachel Orr, who tied with Hawkins for third in the long jump, and Kim Quinn, who took fourth place in the 5000. Sam Nielsen and Julia Stewart placed third and fourth in the triple jump respectively, and Spela Hus placed fourth in the shot put.
The distance medley relay team consisting of Stephanie Burt, Krista Whittle, Jessie Chugg and Hannah Williams took second place.
The men claimed second place, five points behind Idaho.
“It’s not because our men didn’t perform well,” Gensel said about the second-place finish. “It’s just another team performed a little better. We got to hold our heads high.”
With six first-place finishes and 10 second-place finishes, the men proved formidable competition for Idaho.
Senior Dan Howell claimed the top spot in both the 3000 and 5000. Fellow distance runner Chio Lopez won the mile, followed closely by teammate Devin Lang in second place.
Bryce Hall took the weight throw, Damien Szade the high jump and Joe Canavan won the shot put.
Second-place winners include Phillip Noble in the heptathlon, Hall in the shot put, Eric Follett in the high jump and Kenny Hamlett in the triple jump. Freshman Nic Bowens was runner-up in the 60 and 200, followed closely by sophomore Silas Pimentel who placed third in the 60 and fourth in the 200. AJ Boully placed second in the 400 and Tyler Killpack took second in the 800.
“We went in thinking we could win it, and we nearly did,” Gensel said. “Going into the last event we were only down one point. We made a great effort though, and that’s what we like to see.”
After losing by just one point last year, Hawkins said the past year of training together with his teammates has definitely increased team unity — a big factor in the team’s conference victory.
“It made us all work toward the same goal and brought us all closer together,” Hawkins said. “It just made the win that much sweeter.”
– ali.davis@aggiemail.usu.edu