The men’s and women’s Southern Utah University track and field teams competed in the Aztec Invitational on March 22 and 23, placing sixth and 20th with 59 and 4.5 points, respectively. Both teams performed better in this meet than their other meet during the weekend, with the men putting up six more points than they did at the Utah Tech Invitational and the women putting up three more.
Men’s
The men started off with their 4×100-meter relay team, which features Noah Bringhurst, Jaedyn Carpenter, Nelson Douglas, Dylan Gibson, Easton Levi Smith and Cedar English. The team came in third place with a 40.57-second finish.
Gibson and English tied for the highest placement for a Thunderbird in the meet, each finishing at No. 2 in their respective events. Gibson ran in the 400 and finished at 47.19, and English competed in the long jump with a 24-3 1/2 leap.
The men’s roster had five more top-five finishes. Ashton Miller and Jace Rodgers ran in the 400 hurdles and placed fourth and fifth with times of 55.49 and 55.89. Later in the meet, Douglas placed third in the 200 after his 21.48-second run.
Two field athletes rounded out the top competitors with freshmen Dylyn Cooks and Isley Gutierrez. Cooks took on the triple jump, where his 44-2 distance landed him in fourth place. Gutierrez followed with his fifth-place high jump finish of 6-1 3/4 finish.
Women’s
The women’s team began competition with a decent 46.95-second run in the 4×100 relay to put themselves in 10th place.
Makenna Skoczylas and Jessica Thurman, both field competitors, had the only two top-10 finishes for the team. Skoczylas participated in the pole vault and tied for seventh after her 12-2 1/2 performance. Thurman came in at No. 10 in the high jump with a 5-3 1/4 finish.
Though not a top finisher, Savannah Nielson ran a 14.16 in the 100 hurdles to place 17th, topping 20 other runners.
Next up
The teams have three meets this week, spanning March 27-30. They will start with the Texas Relays, followed by the UVU Collegiate Invite and the Stanford Invitational.
Author: Anden Garfield
Photographer: Noah Hales for SUU Athletics
sports@suunews.net
