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Chelsea Shapard owns the MWC's top 400m hurdle time heading into this week's conference championships.
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May 11, 2009
2009 Mountain West Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships Schedule 
SALT LAKE CITY - The University of Utah track and field team heads to Laramie, Wyo., this week for the Mountain West Conference Championships. The Utes will bring several student-athletes looking for individual titles and podium finishes at the conference's outdoor meet. The meet will start Wednesday however Utah will not compete in its first event until Friday.
Last Time Out
Utah hosted the Utah Twilight May 5 at Tally Stevens Outdoor Track Complex. The Utes posted two more NCAA West Regional qualifying performances in the 4x400-meter relay and the 400-meter hurdles in their only home meet of the season.
Senior Chelsea DiGrazia (Elko, Nev.) took the lead after the first lap in heat two of the 1,500-meter run, creating a large gap en route to the win with a time of 4:37.86. Janett Ern (Ahlsdorf, Germany) finished in second-place overall in the event with a time of 4:42.98. Lauren Endersen (West Jordan, Utah) won the 3,000-meter race at 10:06.65, followed by Kellie Anderson's (Hendersonville, N.C.) second-place time of 10:26.44.
In the 400-meter dash, Ashley Patterson (Edmonton, Alberta) was able to take the lead at the south turn of the race, and took off to solidify the win, finishing in 55.71 seconds.
Langley Iverson (Reno, Nev.) took first place in the high jump with an effort of 5'5", while Mandi Weatherspoon (Provo, Utah) registered a fourth-place height at 5'3". Iverson is currently tied for third place in the conference's high jump stands with a 5'7" height posted at the Sun Devil Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., on April 10.
Record Crushers
Utah's 4x400-meter relay of Chelsea Shapard (Park City, Utah), Haley McAllister-Birkeland (Salt Lake City, Utah), Ashley Patterson (Edmonton, Alberta) and Whitney Wellington (Surrey, B.C.) at the Utah Twilight after turning in a time of 3:41.60 to break Utah's school record and qualify for the NCAA Regional meet in the event. The relay's team is currently the second-best performance in the conference, trailing only TCU by .03 seconds.
The Ute relay smashed the previous school-best mark of 3:43.93 by 2.33 seconds. The previous record was set during the 2008 outdoor season by the relay of Patterson, Kaplar, Wellington and Shapard.
400-meter Hurdle Utes
A pair of Utes have already qualified for the NCAA's West Regional meet this season. Kaplar took third place at the Utah Twilight with a season-best 1:00.01 effort, while Shapard also improved on her existing NCAA Regional qualifying performance at the same meet with a time of 58.29 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles to take second place in the overall results and now posts the conference's top time in the event heading into the conference meet.
Throwin' Utes
The Utes own the top two spots in the hammer throw in the Mountain West Conference this season. Sarah Grimm (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Josefin Berg (Osthammar, Sweden) finishing first and second place, respectively. Grimm turned in a season-best effort of 199', while Berg secured second place among the conference's top performers with a mark of 192'5.50", set May 5 at the Ute Twilight.
Yielding to Yates
Lucy Yates (St. Albans, Hertfordshire) now ranks sixth in the school's all-time 800-meter list by setting a new personal record to register a first-place finish May 5 at the Utah Twilight with a time of 2:11.88. Yates stands ninth among the conference's best performances this season.
Utes in the MWC's Top 10
Heading into this week's Mountain West Conference Championships, twelve Utah student-athletes have turned in performances that rank among the conference's top-10 this season. ... Endersen is fourth in the 10,000-meter race at a time of 35:40.06 during the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., on March 27 ... DiGrazia stands seventh in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:26.71 at the Sun Devil Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. ... Shapard ranks eighth in the MWC with a time of 54.61 seconds, set on April 18 at the Utah State in Logan, Utah ... pole vaulter Klaudia Rokossa also stands seventh with a height of 12'3.5", posted May 5 at the Utah Twilight ... McAllister-Birkeland posted a 19'3.5" at the Utah Twilight as well in the long jump to rank eighth in the conference ... Chasity Toilolo (Spring Valley, Calif.) takes 10th place with a 149'8", registered at the Southern Utah Invitational on May 2.
Head Coach Kyle Kepler:
"The championship season is here. As a program we have been able to improve our position in the league in recent years and we will aim to continue to do that at this meet. Every point will matter if we hope to meet both team and individual goals. Everyone trains and competes hard all year with the idea of performing their best at these outdoor championship meets. We need to get off to a good start like we did at the indoor championships and build some momentum through the field events and the prelims of the running events. If we do that then our performances in the finals will take care of themselves."
"Competing in Laramie could present some interesting surprises and elements. Our team fully understands that the elements are the same for everyone. They know they have will have to be mentally tough if they want to achieve their goals. I don't expect the weather to affect our toughness regardless of the conditions. The altitude will likely force the distance runners to be extra patient in the longer races. The sprinters, jumpers, and throwers will be a little more aggressive than usual in order to take advantage of the thinner air."
"This is another great opportunity to continue building our program and moving closer to where we want to be within our league on a year to year basis. BYU will be the heavy favorite. TCU with their great sprint and throws depth will likely be the runner up. After that you can flip a coin between the rest of the teams for the remaining places."
Additional News and Notes
The Utes have five different student-athletes who have 20 regional-qualifying marks ... Utah has also set 24 new all-time top-10 school marks during the outdoor season.
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