Triplets!!!

I apologize for posting this great news so late.  It was a busy week last week.  I have trying to obtain some great photos (which I have seen, just haven't received permission to download yet) from the NCAA Championships.

In case you missed it...Amanda closed out her collegiate career by finishing third at the NCAA Championships in the 1500 meter race.  Her semifinal was tightly bunched, but she calmly placed fifth (automatic advancement) and moved into the final.

In the final she was about as aggressive as I've ever seen her.  With 900m to go she moved from seventh to second by literally jumping from the rail to lane two.  She stayed near the lead through 300m to go when the packed tightened back up as the readied for a big stretch sprint home.  With 200m to go she was in fifth but trapped on the rail again and everyone was bumping and banging or as Harry Hogg would say "Rubbin' is Racin'.  Amanda held her ground and the inside line down the final 100m and was able to beat all but two for her third First Team All American honor this year.  (14th in XC, 5th in the indoor mile).

First Team AA honors (top 40 in xc, top eight in both indoor and outdoor track) in the same academic year in all three sports is an extremely rare accomplishment.  I believe there were only five athletes in the entire NCAA who did that this year.  The other four were all long distance gals (3,000 meters and up).  Amanda was the only "middle distance" runner to do it.  There are numerous "land mines" that can sidetrack this effort from illness to injury to stress.  Amanda mostly avoided those issues or if she did have to deal with them it was not at championship time.

Up next:  Amanda will likely be competing in the 1500 meter race at the USA Championships on Thursday (and Saturday if she qualifies for the final).  The top three at this meet will represent the US at the World Championships later this summer.

I'll post pics from the NCAA as soon as I receive them.

Just a Hangin'

There is yet a new social media opportunity thanks to Google.  Someone has to be the guinea pig at Utah, so it might as well be us.  See the release below and please help us make it successful by sending a question.  

Utah Athletics will host its first-ever Google+ hangout on Monday, June 3 at noon MDT with Amanda Mergaert of the track and field team and head coach Kyle Kepler. Mergaert, a senior All-American in both cross country and track, has qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 1,500 meters for a third-consecutive year.

The hangout will be shown live on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/uathletics/videos) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/uathletics). We invite fans to submit questions via twitter with the hashtag #utehangout.

Back to Austin

Sorry for the long break between posts.  Struggling a bit with my blog service, but seems to be back up and running again.  The picture above is the crowd at our home meet which was awesome.  Here is a quick recap of what you missed.

At the Pac-12 Championships we finished 11th led by Amanda Mergaert's fourth place finish in the 1500 meter race.  She was only .7 from winning in an outstanding race.  Rebekah Winterton was sixth in the 10K.  Rosalie Waller and Andrea Chavez were sixth and seventh in the 800 meter final.  Destanae Howerton Davis took eighth in the discus as well.  We had several other top ten finishes.  I thought the effort was there, but I know we were disappointed not to score in a few more events and push our point total over what we scored a year ago.

The final qualifiers for the NCAA Preliminary rounds were announced earlier this week.  We were fortunate to have 10 athletes qualify in seven events:

Seniors
Amanda Mergaert:  800/1500 (will only run 1500m)
Steph Jolley:  400H
Klaudia Rokossa: Pole Vault
Anneli Stahl:  Hammer

Juniors
Rosalie Waller: 800
Destanae Howerton Davis:  Discus

Sophmores
Ali Eisenbeiss: 800
Susannah Hurst: 10K
Rebekah Winterton: 10K
Aoife Hickey: Hammer

Congrats to these gals for advancing to the Preliminary round held in Austin, TX this coming Thurs-Sat.  The top 12 in each event will move on to the NCAA Finals held June 6-9 in Eugene, OR.

Busy, busy

It's been a busy couple of weeks with meets in LA (Mt Sac Relays and Long Beach St Relays) and Des Moines (Drake Relays and Robison Invitational).  We also had the Senior Banquet in between.  Lots of great performances and a celebratory evening mixed in.  We won two awards at the Senior Banquet with Candus Ford winning the top female academic award and Lauren McKay picking up the Community Service award for all of her efforts outside of the track and classroom.  Well deserved to say the least!

This is final exam week and we have a final tune up meet at Weber State tonight with a few athletes.  Followed by graduation this weekend for our 12 seniors.  Next week we will put our full focus on the Pac-12 Championship meet which starts on May 11th at USC.  Be sure to watch my weekly press conference for more information about our results from this past weekend which included two school records and two third place finishes at Drake.

Coach Bockman has also set up an instagram page.  Search UtahTrack to find those pictures.

Where have you been?

I know, I know...I've been a bit of a slacker recently.  Between hosting our home meet and then traveling to the traffic jungle of the world (LA) for three different meets this past weekend it's been a bit hectic.

However, the results have been worth the travel and sometimes logistical craziness that can be track and field.  We set three (and within .12 seconds of a fourth) school record in that time.  We have several athletes in position to qualify for the First/Second Round of the NCAA Championships as well.

Be sure to click HERE to see my weekly press conferences to learn more details about the last two weeks.  Choose the Multi media tab in the center of the page and then choose a video from the previous weeks.  New videos are typically added each Wednesday.

Tonight we honor our seniors at the Crimson Club Hall of Fame and Senior Banquet downtown SLC.  It will be a great time.  We will be honoring 12 outstanding seniors who have helped our program grow tremendously.  I am incredibly grateful to each of them for their achievements and being part of our program for the last 4/5 years.  They will leave us as one of the most successful and important groups in Utah Track & Field/Cross Country history.  They have filled our top ten lists with several memorable performances and they have been terrific stewards in the classroom and the community.

Congrats to each of them!!!

Stanford Recap

We are slowly figuring out a few technical glitches in regard to posting my press conferences.  I think we finally have it worked out.  So I'll post the Stanford recap today and then the recap from this past weekend at ASU should go up on Wednesday.

Click HERE and then choose the Multi Media tab to view the Stanford Recap (3/27).

Also...don't forget this is our big week in regard to our home meet...Utah Spring Classic...on Friday evening.  We expect to have another great field of athletes.  As far as the schedule we once again have a short program of events which will be both exciting to watch and not last into the wee hours of the night.

The hammer will begin at 2pm at Guardsman Field.  At the track we will have a couple of field events starting prior to the track events. 3:30p (men's pole vault) and 4:30p (women's long jump).  Beyond that all the other events will be held in a 2.5 hour window starting at 5pm.

Admission and parking are free.  Bring a chair or blanket to sit on the bermed hillside.  There will be kids races at 7:20p.  There will also be an alumni tent with snacks and drinks.  We invite our alums to come reminisce about their time at Utah and support the current team trackside.  We will also be saying "goodbye" to 12 seniors who have meant more than words can say to the growth of our program in the last five years.

See you on Friday.

USC Recap

Sorry for the delay on posting my press conferences.  The host site for my blog has a very defined limit for video content.  For those of you who know me fairly well, you know that keeping my answers brief is not something I'm known for...especially as it relates to speaking about my team.

So click HERE to be taken to last weeks presser about USC.  Be sure to click on the Multi Media tab in the middle of the page and then choose the March 27th Recap.

I will the link and some pictures from the Stanford meet in a day or two when the video becomes available.