Simone Plourde claimed the highest finisher ever by a University of Utah athlete Saturday in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a fourth-place finish in the 3,000-meter run.
Ploudre and teammate Emily Venters, who was fifth in the 5,000 the previous night, are only the fourth and fifth Utah athletes ever to place in the indoor track championships.
Plourde, a junior from Canada who originally competed for BYU before transferring, clocked a time of 9:14.59 in Saturday’s race. The 3,000 was won by North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy in 9:10.07. Tuohy set the collegiate record of 8:35.20 earlier this season.
Ploudre was one of three Utah collegians to place fourth in their event. BYU’s Claire Seymour, a runner-up in the 800-meter run a year ago, finished fourth on Saturday night with a time of 2:03.18. The race was won by Stanford freshman Roisin Willis with a time of 1:59.93.
After finishing second in the 5,000-meter run Friday night, BYU’s Casey Clinger returned to the track Saturday to claim a fourth-place finish in the 3,000 with a time of 7:49.37. The race was won by Rouad Messaoudi of Oklahoma State in 7:48.10.
BYU also earned an eighth-place finish from Cierra Tidwell in the high jump; she cleared 5-foot-11 1/2.
BYU’s men finished 12th in the team competition with 9 points; Utah’s women finished 21st in the team competition, three spots ahead of BYU. Arkansas won both the men’s and women’s team championships.