Utah Tech women's track & field had an impressive showing at the NAU Lumberjack Team Challenge on Friday afternoon.
What Head Coach Derrick Atkins said: "The team improved a lot from last week. There were school records broken across the board and girls were hitting PR's. The team has made a lot of progress in the last week and at a tough place to compete they performed well."
WHAT HAPPENED: Utah Tech women's track & field started out the day at the 200m race where all four racers had top-10 finishes in program history. Ashlyn Gihula led the team with a time of 26.27, followed narrowly by
Mary Fallon at 26.48. Parish and Yadon raced 26.67 and 27.13, respectively.
Following that up, Megan Jenkins set a new school record in the 400m. She raced a 59.58 time which was not only good for the school record, but third place on the day. Additionally, Emma Lloyd finished in 1:06.28 for the 7th best time in program history.
The Trailblazers competed the 600m for the first time in Flagstaff and had Kelly Denninghoff finish in 1:44.69 and Madelynne Crawford in 1:45.40.
Next up was the 800m which had impressive showings all around, but particularly from Addi Wyatt, Sadie Edwards and Camilla Hamilton. Wyatt raced a program-best 2:20.23, passing the previous school record by nearly eight seconds. Additionally, Edwards raced 2:22.62 and Hamilton 2:23.43 for the 2nd and 3rd best times in school history.
"Those are examples of athletes that are doing the work," said head coach Derrick Atkins about the impressive performance. "They do the work on and off the track and it shows in the times they get and the athletes they are."
Three more Trailblazers raced top-10 finishes in the 800m. Savannah Eatough raced 2:31.09, Alexia Corona 2:31.21 and Kinley Spaulding 2:34.9 for the 5th, 6th and 8th best times in school history.
Four Trailblazers raced in the mile which was led by Lexi Larsen who ran a 5:23.21 mile for the third best time in program history. Additionally, Kirstin Williams led the way in the 3000m after finishing with the 7th best time in program history at 11:12.71.
Utah Tech raced three relay teams and had a school best from the A team. The team made up of Jenkins, Wyatt, Fallon and Reed finished in 4:07.33. Additionally, B team of Edwards, Gilhula, Denninghoff and Hamilton finished in 4:16.5 and Crawford, Parish, Lloyd and Eatough rounded out C team with a 4:22.66.
To end the day the Trailblazers competed in their lone field event, the high jump, which led to more school records being broken. All three Trailblazers are in the top three of the record book. Kylie Bishop led the way having cleared 1.57m. Morgan Callens and Lainee Leavitt both cleared 1.52m.
UP NEXT: Utah Tech will return to Flagstaff on Feb. 3 for the Ron Mann Classic. This will be the Trailblazers final tune-up before the 2023 WAC Indoor Championships on Feb. 25 in Spokane, WA.
