Utah Track and Field Wraps Up Great Weekend at Payton Jordan Invitational

Saturday, May 3

Palo Alto, Calif.

All Day

University of Utah

Payton Jordan Invitational

Utah Track and Field Wraps Up Great Weekend at Payton Jordan Invitational

5/4/2014 12:00 AM | Track & Field

May 4, 2014

PALO ALTO, Calif.- The University of Utah women's track and field team wrapped up a solid weekend of competition at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. The Utes were led by senior Theresa Waybright's first place performance in the pole vault.

"I thought we had a really good weekend," head coach Kyle Kepler said. "Our younger kids competed well, and our veterans continue to improve. With our championship season approaching, we are starting to see the vast majority of our team come into the form we want them to be at. We will continue to keep them on the right track as we move closer to those dates."

Getting the action underway for the Utes was senior Theresa Waybright in the pole vault. The event title came down to a jump off between Waybright and the University of California's Victoria Rische. The bar was originally set at 3.86 meters, which both athletes failed to clear. The bar lowered five centimeters to 3.81 meters, and once again they both failed to clear. The bar lowered another five centimeters to a height of 3.76 meters, where Waybright was able to surpass Rische and earn the event title.

"Anytime you wen an event title it is definitely a good thing," Kepler said. "She got really close to setting a new personal record today, and she was able to get closer to a mark that will get her into the NCAA Championships. She didn't clear the height we wanted, but I still feel like she continues to make progress."

The 800-meter race featured one athlete competing for the Utes. Junior Ali Eisenbeiss competed in section four, where she recorded a time of 2:06.34 to earn fourth.

"We challenged Ali to run a little differently than usual," Kepler said. "We wanted her to get a feel for running a little closer to the front, which she needs to do to compete in the bigger upcoming meets. Overall, it was great to see her get off the start line and do exactly what we asked her to do. She got bumped around a little, but was still able to hold some people off and run a solid race. She is going to need to get used to this style of aggressive running if she wants to place well at the Pac-12 Championships."

The Utes compete next at the Weber State Twilight on May 7 in Ogden, Utah.