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Utes, Cougs Will Hold Indoor Meet At Olympic Oval
1/28/2003 12:00 AM | Track & Field
Jan. 25, 2003
BY MICHAEL C. LEWIS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
KEARNS -- Until her phone rang just a few months ago, Lisa Archer had no idea that the Utah Olympic Oval had built an indoor track around its speedskating ice in the months following the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
But that phone call changed everything.
Archer now has an agreement with the Oval that allows her University of Utah track and field teams to train on the track three times a week, and the Utes are playing co-host of their first indoor meet ever today at 1:30 p.m. at the facility.
Joined by co-host Brigham Young, which is sharing the cost of renting the facility as well as some of the necessary equipment, the Utes will compete against athletes from Weber State, Southern Utah, Illinois and Utah Valley State College on a pristine, 442-meter track that seems like heaven compared to the relatively cramped confines of the campus "bubble" where they used to work out full-time.
"It's breathtaking," said Nellie Hammons, an 800-meter runner for the Utes.
The track stretches around the ice where speedskaters made history during the Olympics last year, and it expands from four lanes to eight down the home straightaway, to allow for sprint races. Not only do the runners have more room to run without worrying about the tight curves that come with most smaller indoor tracks, but there's enough space on the "infield" --once one of the hockey rinks is disassembled -- to conduct all of the standard field events.
"I don't know whose idea it was," Utah distance runner Nephi Tyler said. "But I'm glad they came up with it."
Actually, it was the Oval's idea.
Program director John McCorquindale is the one who phoned Archer with a suggestion that they work out an arrangement. "Because nobody knew they had put a track in here," said Archer, who's in her second year as the Utah coach. "So they knew they had to make the phone call."
The Utes have been training at the Oval since November, and the athletes can't believe their good fortune. After all, the Utes haven't even had their own outdoor track since one was removed from Rice-Eccles Stadium two decades ago -- they work out at East High School during the outdoor season -- let alone an indoor one.
"It's nice to be able to train on a full facility," Archer said. "And that's how you continue your growth and development of the program and of the team, at a place like this."
The Cougars are happy to be in on today's meet, too.
The Cougs haven't played host to an indoor meet in 15 years because Smith Fieldhouse is old and cramped, with blind corners on one end that make it impractical for competition.
mcl@sltrib.com
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