PROVO, Utah — Four new school records were set on the second day of the BYU December Invitational on Thursday, highlighted by an impressive mile run from freshman Sila Kiplagat in his first collegiate indoor meet.
Kiplagat — who earned All-Region honors in cross country just a month ago — continued his extraordinary freshman campaign with a 4:03.20 converted mile time, passing Wolverine great Mo Guled for the No. 1 spot. Utah Valley has only seen one sub-four mile in program history, which was done last outdoor season by Alex Hartshorn.
Pierce Vittone headlined a strong contingent of runners in the 1k, setting a new school record with a converted time of 2:25.48 to finish second overall. Following closely behind, Noah Nielson, Cayden Tupper, Max Clemons, and Gannon Jensen all earned spots on the UVU top-10 leaderboard.
Ella Hopper added another school record to her collection, posting a time of 38.53 in the 300m to take third overall. On the men's side Kade Thompson put up a blistering 33.50 to also set a school record in the 300m with the top overall time of the day. Gavin Stafford also secured a spot in the top 10 with a time of 34.65.
Jennaveve Bingham picked up the fourth school record of the day, posting a 1:24.76 time in the 600-yard. She was followed by Lyza Yetter, whose mark of 1:31.46 is good for No. 3 all-time.
The men's heptathlon saw Neal Berkey close the gap on the top all-time mark with a point total of 5,474. Berkey improved on a previous-best of 5,382 in 2023, and needs 72 more points to match Michael McPherson's record of 5,546 set in 2014.
Utah Valley's three other heptathletes put up top-10 marks, led by Cole Johnson's 4,774 to move from 10th to 6th all-time. Joey Trageser put up a strong performance in his first meet post-mission at 4,654 points to claim the No. 8 spot, and Ryan Rushton shined in his first collegiate meet to take No. 10 at 4,626.
A pair of transfer hurdlers showed out in their first races in Wolverine Green. Weber State transfer Payge Walz posted a time of 8.77 to claim the No. 6 all-time spot. Western Colorado transfer James Duncan blitzed his way to No. 5 with a time of 8.15.
Paisley Taylor had a strong day in her first college indoor meet, taking first in the mile with a converted time of 5:03.48. Taylor also came in second in the 3k with a converted time of 10:06.90 as the top attached runner.
The Wolverines will take a couple of weeks off for the holiday break before returning to action in the new year at Nevada and Weber State on Jan. 9-10.
