Track Athletes Complete Final Day of Drake Relays

Saturday, April 25

Des Moines, Iowa

TBA

University of Utah

Drake Relays

Track Athletes Complete Final Day of Drake Relays

4/25/2009 12:00 AM | Track & Field

April 25, 2009

DES MOINES, IOWA - University of Utah track athletes finished up competition at the Drake Relays on Saturday afternoon in the sprint medley, 400-meter hurdles, and the 1,500-meter run. The Utes competed through cold and rainy weather conditions.

The sprint medley team opened up competition for the Utes with a solid performance by all four members. Haley McAllister-Birkeland, a senior, ran the first leg of the race with a time of 25.5. She passed on to junior Whitney Wellington, whom finished her leg in 24.9. Ashley Patterson, a senior, ran the third leg of the race (56.1) and handed off to senior Janett Ern to finish. Ern completed her leg of the race in 2:17 to add to the Utes' overall time of 4:04.03, which earned them 12th-place overall in the competition.

"The sprint medley team ran a solid race," said head coach Kyle Kepler. "They all showed good effort and ran their legs well. It was good to start the day off with this group."

Chelsea Shapard and Chelsey Kaplar competed in the 400-meter hurdles in heat three and one, respectively. Shapard started out rough at the gun, but fought back and finished fourth in her heat with a regional qualifying time of 60.13. Kaplar came out strong, leading her heat through the ninth hurdle, but hit the tenth hurdle, leading to a time of 61.80 and fourth in her heat. Shapard finished in fifth-place overall and Kaplar came in 14th.

"Kaplar had the best nine hurdles we've ever seen her run. She hit the tenth hurdle which may have caused her a regional qualifying mark," said Kepler. "From the first hurdle Shapard didn't look very good, which concerned me. She took too many steps before the first hurdle, but fought back. I'm confident her and Burke will fix that though. It wasn't her best effort, but great credit to her effort for fighting back."

Chelsea DiGrazia competed for an eighth-place finish in the 1,500-meter run. She ran the first 1,200-meters with solid strides, but was unable to solidify a higher finish within the last 300-meters. DiGrazia finished with a time of 4:33.06.

"The entire day was cold and windy with on and off rain storms, but right before DiGrazia's race, it rained the hardest it had all day," commented Kepler. "She didn't finish as well as she wanted, but the first 1,200-meters were good. We'll clean up those last 300-meters in practice next week and make any adjustments we need to over the next few weeks before the conference championship. We had a better day today overall though. Despite lousy weather conditions, it was a very enjoyable day competitively."