Utah Valley University announced on Apr. 7 that its track and field teams will participate in multiple competitions this week, including two local meets at Weber State on Friday and the University of Utah on Saturday. Additionally, three athletes—Neal Berkey, Cole Johnson, and Joey Trageser—will represent the Wolverines in the decathlon at the Bryan Clay Multis in Azusa, California.
The upcoming competitions are significant for Utah Valley as several athletes have recently set new school records and achieved high national rankings. Sila Kiplagat broke the school record in the 1500-meter run with a time of 3:40.74, which is currently ranked twentieth nationally. Maddie Passmore also claimed sole possession of the triple jump record at 12.54 meters after previously matching it.
Morgan Nokes finished eighth overall in the 10,000-meter race at Stanford last weekend with a time of 32:20.03. This performance moved her to second all-time on Utah Valley’s leaderboard for that event and gave her a twelfth-place ranking nationally so far this season.
Cameron Jacobs posted a time of 8:48.90 in the men’s steeplechase at Stanford, placing him thirty-ninth nationally and fifth all-time at Utah Valley. In sprint events at UNLV, Kade Thompson ran a season-best 200-meter dash time of 20.81 seconds (forty-third nationally), while Gavin Stafford recorded a personal best of 20.92 seconds (fifth all-time for UVU). The relay team featuring Thompson, Stafford, Collin Petersen, and Garrett Nelson ran a combined time of 40.01 seconds in the men’s four-by-100 meter relay—the ninth-fastest mark in school history.
Other notable performances include Pierce Vittone’s personal best of one minute forty-nine point thirty-four seconds in the eight hundred meters—the fastest time this season within their conference—and Reagan Gardner taking over first place among conference competitors with her five thousand meter run victory over CBU’s Mahaut Cooren at Stanford.
Looking ahead to next week, Utah Valley plans to travel to Southern California for three more meets between April sixteenth and eighteenth: The ULV Leopard Invitational (La Verne), Bryan Clay Invitational (Azusa), and Beach Invitational (Long Beach).
