Aggie Track Starts Outdoor Season with Six First-Place Finishes

The Utah State track and field team finished second in men's and third in women's competition in its first outdoor meet of the season at the Sacramento State Invitational Saturday afternoon.

Considering they were missing some of their top players, coming home with second place is not disappointing for the Aggies, Head Coach Gregg Gensel said, but second is also not as high as they would have liked.

"I would imagine, just knowing them, that they [USU athletes] aren't satisfied," Gensel said. "They know there's a lot more they can do and they expect to do it."

Despite what the Aggies feel they can do, Saturday's performance was a great start for the team, especially with six teams competing.

Audrey Golightly, who finished first in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 17 minutes, 51.48 seconds, led the women's team. Golightly was the only Aggie on the women's side to earn first place.

In addition to Golightly, the women's team also had help from four second-place finishers and three third-place finishers. Those claiming second place were Christi Howell in the 1,500-meter run (4:40.71); Melanie Marek in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:10.50), Kelli Burton in both the shot put (49-04.50) and the discus throw (157-08).

Burton also finished third in the hammer throw with a distance of 158-07, along with Candice Workman, throwing 45-07.25 in the shot put and 153-07 in the discus throw.

The men's side ended the meet with four athletes earning five first-place finishes. Ryan Bruhn led the way in the hammer throw (197-09) and the discus throw (156-00). Neil Warr also finished first in the javelin (219-08), along with Josh Sides in the shot put (58-02.50) and Mike Nielson in the 1,500-meter run (3:54.18).

Also helping the men's side were the six second-place finishers, including sprinters Justin Wickard in the 110-meter hurdles (14.43), Nick Seedal with a 48.28 time in the 400-meter dash, the USU 4x400-meter relay team (3:13.63).

Field events taking second were Mark Burton in the shot put (54-06.75), Colin Veldman, with a distance of 155-11 in the discus, and Robert Crockett jumping 6-08.00 in the high jump.

The USU men's squad also finished with three athletes in third place.

"Everybody stepped up. They performed really well today, the best they could do at this point in the season," he said.

Among the Aggies not competing were Mitch Zundel, one of USU's top distance runners, and Cedric Young, a leading sprinter for the Aggies. Both athletes missed from unrelated sickness.

The USU men's team finished with 162 points behind Sacramento State, which ended with 167 points.

The USU women's team ended with 111 points, with the University of Southern California finishing in second with 127 points and the University of Nevada taking first place with 196.50 points.

"We didn't come out looking to win, but we didn't think we were going to lose either," Gensel said. "So we feel good about how we finished."

By Chad Morris; csmo@cc.usu.edu