UVU Roundup: Hopper breaks school record in 400-meter hurdles – heraldextra.com

Courtesy UVU Athletics
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Utah Valley University wrapped up the week at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds on Saturday with three more women competing on the track.
Ella Hopper ran in the 400-meter hurdle national quarterfinal after qualifying in Thursday’s opening round. Hopper was 17th overall, five spots out of a qualifying position, but did set a new personal record and school record with a time of 57.73 seconds.
Oakley Olson was the first Wolverine to race on Saturday, doing so in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, the event in which she won gold at the WAC Championships two weeks ago. Olson ran it in 10:51.14 on the hot and muggy Texas afternoon to see her impressive season come to a close.
Caila Odekirk closed out the meet for UVU in the 5,000-meter national semifinal and finished in 17:16.02. Those two distance runners were part of a special season that included the first women’s triple crown in the WAC since 1999.
Kelsi Oldroyd secured her spot at Hayward Field on Thursday’s opening day for the women, when she finished second among all competitors in the javelin after breaking her own school record to hit 57.72 meters. She’s the first Wolverine to qualify for Nationals in the javelin.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Utah Valley men’s 4×100 squad has earned its way to Eugene, Oregon, for the NCAA Championship Meet.
The quartet of Gavin Stafford, Cameron Franklin, Kade Thompson, and Gabe Remy posted a school-record 39.13 time, achieving the first-ever relay berth after their performance on Friday at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds at E.B. Cushing Stadium at Texas A&M.
The men’s 4×100 will open the track segment of the NCAA Championships on Wednesday, June 11 at 4:05 p.m. PT from Hayward Field in Eugene.
The Wolverines ran in the third and final heat and took second among the group to earn an automatic spot. They posted the eighth-best time at the regional, with Texas, Arkansas, and USC taking the top three spots. UVU is one of five non-P-4 programs to earn one of the 12 spots out of the West, with only Arkansas Pine Bluff and Washington State in front of the Wolverines.
Remy also advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinal in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. He was 21st overall in the 200, running it in 20.67 seconds (20.668). In the 100, Remy finished in 10.28 seconds, which put him at 22nd in the national quarterfinal. Abdulsalam Farah finished 17th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 8:44.46. It was just five seconds off the final qualifying time, with the top 12 advancing.
EUGENE, Ore. – Utah Valley fell to Arizona 14-4 on Saturday night in the winner’s bracket of the Eugene Regional.
The Wildcats (41-18) hit eight home runs in the victory, including three by slugger Mason White. The Wolverines (33-28) were led by Dominic Longo II, who went 2-for-3 at the plate.
Utah Valley answered Arizona’s first-inning runs with two of its own in the bottom half. Luke Iverson singled to right field and advanced to second when Jayden Smith was hit by a pitch. Mason Strong followed with an RBI single to score Smith, and Longo tied the game with a base hit off the right-field wall, which was held to a single by a quick defensive play.
Arizona pulled ahead with home runs in the second, third, and fourth innings, building a 7-2 lead. UVU responded in the fourth by loading the bases after a Longo single and back-to-back hit batters. The Wolverines plated two runs on groundouts by CJ Colyer and DJ Massey, cutting the deficit to 7-4.
The Wildcats broke the game open with a six-run seventh inning. Joseph Barnhardt had a ground-rule double to right center in the ninth for the Wolverines.
Utah Valley’s pitching staff recorded nine strikeouts, including four from Colton Kennedy. The senior moved into 12th place on the program’s career strikeouts list and now ranks ninth in single-season strikeouts with 79. Ray Hernandez, Luke Kimmel and Jacob Beltran added strikeouts in relief for UVU.
Utah Valley faced Cal Poly in an elimination game on Sunday afternoon that finished after the Daily Herald’s print deadline. The winner of that game would move on to face Arizona in the regional final Sunday evening.
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