Utah Valley closes out the regular season this week as the Wolverines compete at BYU's Robison Invitational and the SUU Coliseum Championships.
The bulk of the events at BYU will take place Wednesday and Thursday, with the 800-meter and mile taking place on Friday and the 200-meter on Saturday. The meet at SUU will be Thursday only. Live results for both meets will be posted on SportTrax.
LAST TIME OUT
Utah Valley last competed as a team in Southern California on April 16-18 across the ULV Leopard Invitational, Bryan Clay Invite, and Mt. SAC Relays. About a dozen athletes competed last weekend at Utah State's Aggie Invitational in Logan.
UVU's trip to SoCal was highlighted by a new school record in the women's steeplechase by Caren Kipsirat. Kipsirat's time is the best in the WAC this season and ranks 52nd nationally.
Grace Degarimore posted an impressive new PR in the shot put to win the event at the Mt. SAC relays. Degarimore improved by over a meter to 15.78m, the best mark in the WAC and 56th in the country. Degarimore is closing in on UVU's longest-standing record in any event, 16.16m set by former Swedish national champion Helena Engman in 1999.
Utah Valley's distance runners put on a show at Bryan Clay, led by Morgan Nokes in the 5k. Her time of 15:31.20 ranks 22nd nationally, while her 10k time of 32:20.03 from the Stanford Invitational is 15th. Both marks lead the WAC.
On the men's side of the 5k, Sila Kiplagat and Jayden Fitzgarrald both improved on their season bests, with Kiplagat shaving about 17 seconds off his PR at the Utah Tech Invitational at 13:49.23 and Fitzgarrald improving by about 20 seconds at 13:54.22. Kiplagat and Fitzgarrald now own the second- and third-best times in UVU history.
As of last weekend, Utah Valley ranks 7th nationally in the women's 10,000-meter event squad rankings. Following Nokes, Reagan Doman holds the team's second-best time at 33:24.35, with Ari Trimble in third at 33:45.29.
Utah Valley's men's 4x100 relay team is rounding into form after replacing two legs of their All-America squad from a season ago. The foursome of Garrett Nelson, Collin Petersen, Kade Thompson, and Gavin Stafford posted a season-best of 39.54 at Mt. SAC, the No. 6 time in UVU history, the best time in the WAC, and 49th-best in the nation this season.
UP NEXT
Utah Valley will head to Arlington, Texas for the WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 14-16.
