ST. GEORGE — The Trailblazers open the outdoor track and field season this Friday-Saturday, March 10-11, at the Utah Tech Invitational — the first-ever collegiate meet inside Greater Zion Stadium.
Utah Tech did host a meet back in the COVID-shortened spring 2021 cross-country season, but it will be the first home track and field event in the program’s history, according to a Utah Tech Athletics news release.
The meet will include entries from several teams in or near Utah including Southern Utah University, the University of Utah, Utah Valley University and UNLV. While Utah Tech only sponsors women’s track and field, men’s and women’s events will be contested and will be open to all entered teams as well as feature entries from the Utah Tech men’s cross country team. All races and field events will start with the women’s heats/flights and followed by the men.
The meet is free and open to spectators who are asked to enter and sit on the west side of the stadium. There will be a spectator area on the west side of the lower field for throwing events. Concessions will be available for purchase on Saturday.
The meet will start at 4 p.m. Friday with field events, including discus, shot put, long jump and high jump. The opening action for the Blazers will be in the women’s high jump where three women will compete. The field will include all three of the jumpers who contested the event at the WAC Champions indoors two weeks ago led by sophomore Kylie Bishop, who cleared 1.60m (5 feet, 3 inches) in the indoor season.
The first night will conclude with a pair of distance events on the track — the 3,000-metre steeplechase and the 5,000-meter run. The Trailblazers do not have any entries in the steeplechase but do hold eight entries in the 5,000. Junior Shakayla Morgan sports a person-best of 18:19, tops among Utah Tech entries.
The meet will resume Saturday at 10 a.m. with the conclusion of field events including javelin and triple jump. There will be senior recognition at 10:40 a.m. before the events on the track get started at 11 a.m.
In the sprints, the Trailblazers will have a number of entries including three in the 100-meter dash, four athletes in the 200 and five runners in the 400.
In the 100, sophomore Ashlynn Gilula comes in with the quickest mark of the trio with a 12.31 from last season which also stands as the current team record. In the 200, freshman Mary Fallon has the best time of the group coming in with a time of 26.38 from this past indoor season.
The 400 features a group with a mix of sprinters stepping up and middle-distance runners stepping down in distance. Sophomore Sadie Edwards has the best mark coming in at 59.48 run in the 2022 outdoor season. The group also features Addi Wyatt, coming off a fifth-place finish in the 800 at the WAC Indoor Championships last month when she recorded a time of 2:14.18.
Jumping up to the two middle-distance events of the meet the Trailblazers have a trio of runners in the 800 and a pair in the 1,500. In the 800, sophomore Lexi Larsen brings the top mark of the three with a 2:23.80 from the indoor season. And in the 1,500 freshman Mariah Skinner, while never having run the 1,500, has a mark of 5:23.35 in the full indoor mile.
The final distance event of the meet will be the 3,000-meter run with a pair of Trailblazers in the field, including junior Shakayla Morgan, who clocked a personal-best of 10:41.26 indoor.
In the hurdle events, Utah Tech has seven total entries, four in the 100 hurdles and three in the 400 hurdles. In the 100 hurdles, sophomore Emma Lloyd set a PR of 16.32 last season. Freshman Ashlyn Parish comes in having broken the team record in the 60 hurdles indoors running 8.80 at the Ron Mann Classic this season.
The Trailblazers will enter teams in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays, bringing to 43 the number of entries across all events. Alaynah Reed, Kelly Denninghoff, Megan Jenkins and Wyatt set the school record in the 4×400, finishing in 3:53.81 at the WAC Indoor Championships Feb. 25.
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