Utah Valley University athletes secured four gold medals on the first day of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championships held at The Podium in Spokane, Washington. The men’s team leads with 63.5 points, ahead of Tarleton State, while the women’s team is in second place, trailing UT Arlington by a small margin and holding a two-point lead over Tarleton State.
Porter Whitworth won his first conference title for Utah Valley in the men’s 5000-meter race with a time of 14:20.50. Morgan Nokes reclaimed her title in the women’s 5000-meter event, finishing in 16:16.09 after previously winning in 2024.
The men’s distance medley relay (DMR) team—Pierce Vittone, Cayden Tupper, Gilbert Olivas, and Collin Petersen—earned gold and set a new school record with a time of 9:55.06. “For Vittone and Tupper, it is their second WAC title in the indoor DMR after winning it last season with what was also then a school record,” according to event organizers.
Grace Williams took gold in the pole vault with a mark of 3.75 meters, achieving her first indoor title and her second overall after winning outdoors last season.
Other notable performances included Reagan Doman taking silver in the women’s 5k and Seth Smith earning bronze in the men’s 5k. Porter Westerlind finished third in the pole vault, while Makaylie Roberds, Mazee Southward, Julie Moore, and Elisabeth Ferrell claimed bronze for Utah Valley’s women’s DMR team.
Sixteen additional Utah Valley athletes received second team All-WAC honors for placing between fourth and eighth across various events. These included Andrew Turner, Eddie Garcia, Trevor Hill, and Karsten Deakin (weight throw); Emily Conlin and Neal Berkey (pole vault); Maddie Passmore and Gavin Stafford (long jump).
The Wolverines also had strong showings in both men’s and women’s 5k races among All-WAC honorees: Artana Nice, Mazee Southward, Ari Trimble for women; Wyatt Mortenson, Cameron Jacobs, Trey Despain, Caleb Ream for men. Payge Walz placed seventh during her pentathlon debut.
In Friday’s preliminaries Kade Thompson matched an existing school record by running a personal best of 6.65 seconds in the men’s 60-meter dash—a time originally set by Aaron Johnson in 2021. Thompson will compete alongside Stafford and Gunner Stepp in Saturday’s finals for that event as well as contend for a title in the 200-meter dash together with Stafford.
Eme Stout qualified for Saturday’s finals of the women’s 60-meter dash after posting a time of 7.62 seconds. James Duncan, Matthew Maclennan, and Payge Walz all advanced to finals for the 60-meter hurdles; Ella Hopper moved forward to compete further in both the women’s 200m and 400m events.
All four Utah Valley entrants advanced to Saturday’s finals of the 800-meter run: Vittone and Jayden Fitzgarrald on the men’s side; Jennaveve Bingham and Brian Anderson on the women’s side.
In multi-event action at midway point of heptathlon competition Neal Berkey sits second overall; Cole Johnson is fifth; Joey Trageser holds seventh place going into Saturday’s remaining events—the hurdles, pole vault, and concluding run.
Saturday’s schedule begins at 10 a.m. Mountain Time with live coverage available via WAC International; evening running events start at 3 p.m., streamed on ESPN+.
