Sims Falls Just Short of New School Record at Day 1 of MPSF Championships

Friday, February 28

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University of Utah

MPSF Championships

Sims Falls Just Short of New School Record at Day 1 of MPSF Championships

2/28/2020 11:58 PM | Track & Field

2020 MPSF Day One Compiled

A handful of Utes open up competition at its ninth MPSF Championship.

SEATTLE — The University of Utah track & field team opened up competition at the MPSF Championships on Friday inside the Dempsey Indoor Facility, which almost saw the pentathlon school-record fall once again courtesy of Kolbi Sims — who tied the record set back in 2007 by U of U hall of famer Amanda Feigt earlier this season.

Competing in her second pentathlon of the season, Sims got the meet underway running in the 60m hurdles event. She finished second overall in 8.66 seconds and just nudged out Avery McMullen of Colorado (8.67). Washington's Hannah Rusnak captured the title in 8.43 and jumped out to an early lead in the pentathlon.

In the high jump, Sims recorded a height of 1.61m (5'3.25") and finished in a three-way tie for sixth with Haley Folsom of BYU and Hannah Gaskins of Hawaii. Sims also earned sixth-place in the shot put, throwing a distance of 10.98m (36'0.25"). After the first three events, Sims sat in fifth, totaling 2,323 points with two events to go.

With the long jump and 800m race remaining, Sims wasted no time leaping a season-best distance of 5.54m (18'2.25") on her second attempt and secured third-place. She then ran a tremendous race in the 800m, posting a new career-best time of 2:17.80 to give her the clutch win. Sims placed fourth-overall (3,889) falling three-points shy of taking sole possession of the top-mark in school-history. Washington's Hannah Rusnak ran away with the pentathlon, earning victories in four of the five events and totaled 4,190 points.

"I'm really proud of her and the effort that she's put in," head coach Kyle Kepler stated about Sims. "I know there is a little disappointment from not scoring quite as many points and actually came up two points short of her school record, it was crazy that it was that close, but certainly a great effort today and I'm really proud of her."

As for the rest of the Utah contingent, Scarlet Dale competed in the 5k race and posted a mark of 17:22.31 for 26th-place while Lauren O'Banion was the lone Ute in the 200m dash running just off her PR pace for 28th (25.45).

Utah closed out the first day of the MPSF Championships entering a squad into the DMR in hopes of earning a qualifying time for the NCAA Indoor Championships with Utah just on the outside looking in. Running a gutsy race, the DMR squad of Sarah Newton, Skyler Blair, Brooke Manson and Sarah Feeny finished second-overall with a time falling just short of a qualifying mark in 11:15.68.

At days end, the Utes sit in eighth with 13 points and will wrap up the 2020 MPSF Championships tomorrow with competition slated to begin at 11 a.m. (MT).

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