OGDEN — The University of Utah track and field team continued to show improvement in only its second outdoor meet of the season with two first-place finishers at the non-scoring Wildcat Invitational Saturday.
Senior Vanessa Mortensen and junior Amanda Feight each won crowns at the all-day event. Mortensen won the hammer throw and Feight the long jump. Mortensen turned in an NCAA Regional qualifying mark of 198 feet, 5 inches in the hammer throw, one inch shy of a personal best, while Feight won the long jump crown with a leap of 18-9.
While the two event champions recorded solid performances, so too was the all-around showing of the entire team.
"Overall, I think that we had a solid showing at the Wildcat Invitational this afternoon," said track and field head coach Kyle Kepler. "We definitely showed improvement in only the second week of the outdoor season. We were able to make the necessary improvements from last week's outing and showed that we are capable of putting the pieces together to become a competitive team.
"We've got a lot of work ahead of us this outdoor season but it's obvious that we have a solid foundation from which to build upon."
The Utes also saw a pair of second-place finishers in Janett Ern and in the 4x100 meter relay team. Ern took runner-up in the 1500 meters (4 minutes, 46.90 seconds).