May 12, 2007

FRESNO, Calif. - Utah State men's team won its first Western Athletic Conference Track & Field Championship Saturday at Fresno State's Warmerdam Field. The USU women finished in fifth-place.

The Aggie men, who are just in their second year in the WAC, won their eighth team title overall after seven Big West Conference titles, the last coming in 2003.

"Going into today, we knew that if we took care of business, that we could win the thing," legendary head coach Gregg Gensel said, who was named men's outdoor Coach of the Year. "In the first event, we can't get the baton around the track, and so you've got to be worried a little bit, and then the very next event out best guy in the 1,500 gets knocked down, so we didn't finish as well as we would have liked."

"That changed in the very next event in the 110 hurdles where I didn't think we would score as well as we did, but we had three people score and then it just started rolling from there," Gensel said, who is in his 26th year at the helm of the Aggies. "I told them last night that you can't get down if one thing goes wrong or somebody goes down because we've got enough people in place that if people pick up for others, we'll be good.

USU had three point scorers in the 400 that gave Gensel some reassurance followed by the icing on the cake.

"We had three people score in the 400 and it just kept going from there," Gensel said. "Going 2-6 in the 5,000 was the exclamation point on the whole thing. That just shows that we have a really good strength in the distances. I am just so proud of our whole team to just stick through it and keep going."

Gensel was especially proud of two members of the men's team, freshman Andrew Niccoli, who dove at the finish line of the 800 and had to be peeled off the track by USU's athletic trainer and his teammates, and sophomore Nicholas Karren.

"First Andrew (Niccoli), who wasn't even supposed to score in this meet on paper, but I told him going in that he had the opportunity to do something special because I knew that he had a lot of talent but he is just a freshman and hasn't been able to show it yet," Gensel said. "He did it, he made the final and then in the end he put himself to do it."

"Nick Karren, what a guy, his coach (asst. Cory Murdock, who won the double 400 in 1999, helping USU to the Big West championship, and is Karren's event coach) came to me and said he wanted to double, and that's a tough double," Gensel said. "They basically had to talk me into it because that is a really hard double double. With the leg in the mile relay, that is basically five 400's in two days and that is a tough thing to do. He just said, 'Coach, I'm game, I want to do it.' He PR'd in the 400 hurdles and PR'd in the open 400, what more can you ask for. And then he ran a great lead off leg in the relay, that's pretty dang awesome for his fifth 400 of the weekend."

USU outdistanced Boise State, 183-141, while Louisiana Tech was third (117), followed by Fresno State (102) and Idaho (100).

The women had 97.5 points, just edging out sixth-place Hawai'i by half a point (97 points). WAC champion Louisiana Tech tallied 162 points, while Nevada was second with 123, Idaho third with 121 and Boise State fourth with 116.5. Fresno State was seventh (82), while New Mexico State was eighth (20).

USU head coach Gregg Gensel was named the men's outdoor Coach of the Year, his fourth of the scholastic year as he as was named both the men's and womens cross country, as well as men's indoor track & field coach of the year. Gensel is now a 23-time Conference Coach of the Year award recipient.

For Gensel and USU this means three titles (women's cross country, men's cross country, and men's track & field), that were all won in Fresno.

Saturday began a little rough for USU as the 4x100 meter relay didn't make an exchange in the zone and top 1,500 runner Tony Jones was tripped up on the first turn. However, Gensel and the Aggies rebounded.

The Aggie men locked up the team title with a 2-3-4-5-6 finish in the 5,000 meters, led by junior Ben Kessen (Cresenta, Calif.) with a 14:53.29.

Sophomore Nick Karren (Duchesne, Utah) won the 400 meter hurdles, just edging out senior teammate Scott Bell (Layton, Utah) at the line, as both runners finished with 51.56 for their times. That finish came less than an hour after Karren was part of a 2-3-4 Aggie finish in the open 400 meters, with a time of 47.94 and finishing behind runner-up senior Dasheek Akwenye (Windhoek, Namibia) at 47.14, and junior Brett Knighton (Pocatello, Idaho) with 47.77.

On the women's side, senior Amber Peterson (Midvale, Utah) swept the hurdle titles, after finishing second in both last year. In the 100 meter hurdles, Peterson was clocked in a personal best 13.56, the third fastest time in school history, while in the 400 meter hurdles, Peterson blazed to a personal best time of 58.55, the second fastest time in school history.

"I'm just shocked," Peterson said. "I knew it was possible, but I didn't really dwell on it. It was there, but it was kind of just this hope. I knew it was really possible but I didn't really want to get an ego about it. I'm just floored."

In the 400 meter hurdles, Peterson topped Louisiana Tech's Miriam Barnes, who beat her in last year's WAC Championships.

"I'm stoked. She is an amazing runner," Peterson said. "She ran at nationals last year and is one of the top seven in the nation, so it feels really good to beat someone of that caliber. She is an excellent runner so I'm amazed that I was able to beat her.

Peterson was joined as a WAC champion by senior Amy Egan (Latrobe, Pa.), who won the women's 800 with a 2:09.22 timing, just two hundredths of a second off her personal-best.

"It was great, I was nervous about how the race was going to go," Egan said. "I didn't really have a plan, but I had faith and I just prayed. I went out there and it could have been awful or it could have been great, but my faith helped me out. I didn't have a strategy and didn't know I was going to win."

Egan held a slight lead down the back stretch and pulled away in the final curve and down the home stretch.

"My coach told me the other day when I was getting nervous about racing not to forget that this is a game, and you just have to go out and play," Egan said. "I just told myself while I was warming up that its a game and I just want to play. So I just went out and played."

Egan was ever so appreciative of her coaches in her final outdoor season.

"I am so thankful to my coaches for allowing me to be a part of this team, because it has been a roller coaster, but I am so glad they gave me the ride," Egan said.

Saturday opened with sophomore Krista Larson (Kaysville, Utah) placing sixth in the hammer throw with a mark of 168-06.

In the women's 1,500 senior Jennifer Twitchell (Sandy, Utah) and junior Stacie Lifferth (Layton, Utah) went 4-5 with respective times of 4:33.91 and 4:34.22.

The men's 1,500 saw Kessen finish fourth with a 3:54.98, as the Aggies bounced back from having top runner freshman Tony Jones (Toquerville, Utah) get tripped up on the first turn and finished seventh with a 3:57.60. Jones was behind freshman teammate Aaron Clements (Taylorsville, Utah) in sixth with a 3:56.58 and ahead of 10th-place junior Seth Wold (Highland, Utah) with 4:06.43.

In the women's 100 meter hurdles, Peterson was followed in the point scoring by freshman Ashlee Cannon (Kaysville, Utah) with a seventh-place time of 14.45.

Senior Scott Bell (Layton, Utah) was one of three Aggies to point in the men's 110 meter hurdles, placing third with a personal-best time of 14.37. Sophomore Chase Richins was fifth with a 14.63, while freshman John Strang (Hawthorne, N.J.) was sixth with a 14.87.

Freshman Jessica Nielson was just out of the placing in the women's 400 meters with a ninth-place finish in a 57.63 clocking.

In the men's 800, freshman Andrew Niccoli (Littleton, Colo.) literally dove for the finish line to pass Aaron Berry of Fresno State at the line, and finished with a PR time of 1:52.93 after bouncing, skidding and sliding off the track.

WAC Championships Results
Warmerdam Field
Fresno, Calif.

Women's Team Scores
1.Louisiana Tech, 162; 2. Nevada, 123; 3. Idaho, 121; 4. Boise State, 116.5; 5. UTAH STATE, 97.5; 6. Hawai'i, 97; 7. Fresno State, 82; 8. New Mexico State, 20

Men's Team Scores
1. UTAH STATE, 183; 2. Boise State, 141; 3. Louisiana Tech, 117; 4. Fresno State, 102; 5. Idaho, 100

Utah State Women's Individual Results
Running Events
100 Meters - none
200 Meters - none
400 Meters - 9. Jessica Nielson, 57.63
800 Meters - 1. Amy Egan, 2:09.22
1,500 Meters - 4. Jennifer Twitchell, 4:33.91; 5. Stacie Lifferth, 4:34.22; 7. Alexis Meyer, 4:38.73; 10. Erin Stratton, 4:49.55
5,000 Meters - 6. Caroline Berry, 17:47.57; 7. Stacie Lifferth, 17:48.49; 14. Vanessa Hawkins, 18:35.72; 23. Erin Stratton, 19:21.02; Alexis Meyer, DNF; Jennifer Twitchell, DNF
4x100 Meter Relay - 5. Ashlee Cannon, Ali Cranney, Jessica Nielson, Brittany Chadwick, 47.83
4x400 Meter Relay - 4. Ashlee Cannon, Jessica Nielson, Cachet Webb, Amber Peterson, 3:49.73
100-Meter Hurdles - 1. Amber Peterson, 13.56; 7. Ashlee Cannon, 14.45
400-Meter Hurdles - 1. Amber Peterson, 58.55

Field Events
Hammer - 6. Krista Larson, 168-06; 15. Shannon Prince, 139-01; 18. Brooke McNaughton, 135-06
Discus - 10. Krista Larson, 137-02; 12. Shannon Prince, 132-10; 16. Brooke McNaughton, 114-06
High Jump - 3. Carrie Yost, 5-07.00; 8. Tara Pickett, 5-03.00
Triple Jump - Ali Cranney, Foul; Aimee Savageau, Foul

Utah State Men's Individual Results
Running Events
100 Meters - 2. DJ Smith, 10.34; 9. Lamar Brown, 11.11
200 Meters - 4. DJ Smith, 21.63; 7. Dasheek Akwenye, 22.05
400 Meters - 2. Dasheek Akwenye, 47.14; 3. Brett Knighton, 47.77; 4. Nick Karren, 47.94
800 Meters - 2. Andrew Niccoli, 1:52.93
1,500 Meters - 4. Ben Kessen, 3:54, 6. Aaron Clements, 3:56.58; 7. Tony Jones, 3:57.60; 10. Seth Wold, 4:06.43
5,000 Meters - 2. Ben Kessen, 14:53.29; 3. Vance Twitchell, 14:59.62; 4. Tony Jones, 15:01.80; 5. Seth Wold, 15:09.61; 6. Jared Glenn, 15:14.82; 10. Andrew Niccoli, 15:47.49; 13. Aaron Clements, 15;54.87
4x100 Meter Relay - DNF
4x400 Meter Relay - 2. Nick Karren, Scott Bell, Brett Knighton, Dasheek Akwenye, 3:11.90
110-Meter Hurdles - 3. Scott Bell, 14.37; 5. Chase Richins, 14.63; 6. John Strang, 14.87; 9. Dan Seethaler
400-Meter Hurdles - 1. Nick Karren, 51.56; 2. Scott Bell, 51.56; 7. Chase Richins, 57.39

Field Events
Javelin - 3. Chase Taylor, 206-00
Triple Jump - 5. Blake Hadfield, 48-02.50; 10. Nnamdi Gwacham, 46-06.75
Pole Vault - 7. David Loomis, 14-07.25; Palmer Hawkins, NH; Jake Maybe, NH
Shot Put - 4. Kevin Liu, 53-01.75; 8. Kerry Shepard 45-03.50