They competed hard, but fell short. The Vandal women’s track and field team placed second in the WAC Indoor Championships when the four-day meet concluded Saturday in Nampa. Utah State won the women’s title with 144 points — just edging Idaho, which finished with 110.
Sophomore Hannah Kiser was named WAC Women’s Track Performer of the Year after winning two individual events. Kiser won two distance races for the Vandal women finishing the mile in 4:45.67 and the 3,000-meter in 9:45.11. Kiser’s 3,000-meter time is a new WAC Championship meet record. She will compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships March 9 in Boise.
Kiser was also part of the winning distance medley team with juniors Lauren Shaffer and Liga Velvere and senior Erica Digby. The team won the race in 11:41.67 and broke the meet record. Digby set the pace for the Vandals, giving them a huge lead after running the first leg.
“Our first lap was pretty fast,” Digby said. ” … And then once we got around (Idaho Director of Track and Field Wayne) Phipps said I should just lead, so that’s what I did and I just went as hard as I could.”
Velvere beat teammate Schaffer and notched her second WAC title in the 800-meter in 2:09.05. Schaffer finished in second with 2:10.12.
Digby placed second in the 3,000-meter 0.35 seconds behind Kiser.
Sophomore Alycia Butterworth finished third to sweep the top three spots for the Vandals. Butterworth also placed second in the 5,000-meter to round out a strong distance showing for the Vandals.
Senior Alyssa Covington and freshman Johanna Hocketstaller performed well in the women’s pentathlon early in the meet. Hocketstaller finished in fourth with 3,323 points. She won the women’s shot put with a throw of 44-00.50 feet while placing fourth in the long jump. Covington placed third in the 800-meter and second in the long jump.
“The long jump is my strongest event, so I knew if I needed points that was going to be the one to pick them up in,” Covington said. “It was just about forgetting the first three, no matter how you did on those, and just focusing on finishing it off strong, which I thought I did.”
Overall, the Idaho women had 17 personal bests during the championship weekend.
“I thought we performed very well,” Phipps said. “We got off to a bit of a slow start, but you have to commend their competitiveness to be down as low as they were to jump back a few spots and finish as well as they did to score those points.”