Lindgren Highlights Day Two at Bryan Clay Invitational

Thursday, April 18

Azusa, CA

All Day

University of Utah

Bryan Clay Invitational and Multi

Utah Track and Field Spring Classic_Astrid Lindgren

Lindgren Highlights Day Two at Bryan Clay Invitational

4/19/2019 12:14 AM | Track & Field

Bryan Clay Invitational & Multi Results (Interactive)

Sims takes sixth in heptathlon; three distance runners set new PR's

AZUSA, Calif. – Utah wrapped up the second day of competition at the Bryan Clay Invitational & Multi Thursday evening at Cougar Athletic Stadium with Kolbi Sims taking sixth-place in the heptathlon, and Trina Moreno, Emma Christensen and Astrid Lindgren each setting new personal records in the 5K.

Sims, who entered today's final three events in eighth-place with 3,175 points, tallied 2,088 points on Thursday to finish with a new season-best score of 5,263 points. She moved up two spots to finish sixth overall among 17 competitors in Group 4. This marks the second-highest heptathlon score for Sims in her career, while also moving up to No. 3 all-time in Utah program history.

Sims opened the day registering a mark of 5.73m for a total of 663 points in the long jump event. That would move her down a spot to ninth place, but she would then total 603 points after tossing a mark of 36.63m in the javelin throw to move back up to eighth place. Sims closed out the event with the 800-meter run, crossing the finish line in 2:20.08 for 822 points and moving her into sole possession of sixth-place in the Group 4 standings.

Sims' 5,263 points over the two-day event ranked sixth among 17 competitors in group 4 and ranked as the ninth-highest point total among 61 competitors in four different groups. She would register 74 points more than the first heptathlon she competed in earlier this season when she totaled 5,189 points at the Aztec Invitational.

"Kolbi had a really good day, scoring nearly 75 points more overall than her last heptathlon event," said Utah head coach Kyle Kepler. "She left a few points on the table, but we will always take the improvement and move forward with the positive."

In Thursday's running events, seven different Utes took to the track to compete in the 5000-meter run, with Poppy Tank leading the way overall, and both Moreno and Christensen setting new PR's. Sara Leonard opened things up finishing third overall in heat 7, crossing the finish line in 17:51.69. Moreno would also take third-place, finishing the event in a new personal-best time of 17:16.97 in heat 6, while Christensen managed to follow suit and take third in heat 5 with her new personal-best time of 17:07.12.

Tank registered Utah's fastest time on the evening, finishing heat 1 with a time of 16:14.83. Bella Williams would take seventh-place in heat 2 with a time of 16:30.61, Scarlet Dale crossed the line with a time of 16:50.34 and finished in 14th-place in heat 3, while Lindgren wrapped up the day taking 10th-place in heat 8 with a new personal-best time of 17:56.62 – nearly a full 65 seconds better than her previous best time (18:51.55).

"What a solid night for our 5K runners, with three of them collecting new PR's," Kepler noted. Trina and Emma ran amazing heats, and Poppy and Bella just missed PR's, but ran tough. However, the story of the night is Astrid's 17:56. She is a gal who works hard every day, doesn't complain, and doesn't ask for anything. Three weeks ago she got food poisoning the night before and had to drop out at San Francisco State. Tonight, she had to wait all day until the final race at 10:40 p.m. PT to race. Everyone is proud of her. What a way to end a pretty darn good evening of 5K's."

Utah will wrap up competition at the Bryan Clay Invitational tomorrow with the distance crew competing in both the 800-meter and 1500-meter running events. The Utes will also be in action across the way at the Mt. SAC Relays in Torrance, Calif., with athletes competing in the 100-meters, 400-meters, 800-meters, 400-meter hurdles, 4x100 and 4x400-meter relays, and high jump events.

For complete coverage of the Bryan Clay Invitational, click here for the meet central page. Interactive results can be viewed here. The Mt. SAC Relays meet page can be viewed here, while results can be found here.