April 12, 2008

WESTWOOD, Calif. - Chase Englestead led a strong Utah Valley showing at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational hosted by UCLA this weekend.

Englestead set a pair of school records in the very competitive field that included several professional athletes, several olympians and top NCAA programs like UCLA, Texas A&M and Fresno State.

"Overall it was a great meet for us," Utah Valley head coach Scott Houle said. "Traveling to meets like this one are great for us because it gets us to sea level, to warm weather and puts us up against excellent competition."

Englestead had an excellent run in the 3000 meter steeplechase as he ran a 8:56.53. The time was the first sub-nine minute steeplechase in school history as Englestead broke the school mark by 13 seconds. The time was also good enough to qualify him for the West Regional. Englestead was better than 11 seconds faster than the Regional qualifying time.

Along with the steeplechase, Englstead set the school record for the mile run. The two-year record fell as Englestead posted a time of 4:19.19, finishing seventh overall in the race.

Jake Buhler also shined on the men's side as he destroyed his previous personal record in the 5000 meters. Buhler posted a 15:09.14, better than 50 seconds faster than his previous pr.

On the women's side, the 4x400 relay team of Tiera Zaugg, Amy Poll, Karinne Bentley and Chelsea Baker ran a stellar running the 1600 meter relay in 3:55.57.

Bentley had an all-around strong meet, running a 4:34.56 in the 1500 meter run, a race against several of professional and olympian runners. Bentley finished seventh in the race. Former UV standout Ayisha Mitchell won that race while qualifying for the Olympics to run for Ghana.

Mary Nothum set a personal record in the women's 3000 meter steeplechase, running a 10:55 in the first steeple she has competed in this year.

Whitney Aste had a good jumping day for the Wolverines coming up just three inches shy of her personal record with a leap of 5-4 while Chelsea Baker finished just short of the school record in the women's 400 meters for the third consecutive meet, running a 57.51.

The Wolverines will head to Logan next week to compete in a meet hosted by Utah State next Saturday.