Ahead of its 4x100 heat at the Big 12 championships, Utah’s relay team had to deal with a surprise.
Heading into the event, the Utes were supposed to be in a separate heat from the top teams, but a late scratch pushed Utah into the heat with the best teams in a different lane from the one they were preparing to be in.
“There was a scratch in that faster section that moved us up,” said Utah track coach Kyle Kepler. “We were the next team, but they kind of failed to mention that until basically we went and got our hip numbers and they were putting teams on the track and everybody was a little bit confused. So instead of being, I think, in lane five or six, we ended up in lane nine in the faster heat.”
The sudden change in an important race may have thrown some teams off, but not Utah, which ran a school-record 43.69-second time — good for second place — behind the speed of Chelsea Amoah, Haley Duvall, Kinzlee Riddle and Matejah Mangum.
“I thought Haley Duvall, I mean, she’s a freshman and she just got out and got us rolling and her handoff to Kinzlee was solid, knock on wood, kind of been that way all year,” Kepler said. “… Kinzlee ran great on the back stretch on the outside lane. And I think Matejah just really set it up for us at a really high level … and obviously Chelsea did what Chelsea does. So just really, really proud of those guys. It’s a really young group, but they lock in and when it’s race time, they’re ready to go.”
Relay encore
Last year, Utah’s 4x100 relay team made the NCAA regionals for the first time in school history, and in 2026, with a brand-new team aside from Amoah, they did it again.
“I think that’s kind of always been who we’ve tried to become, be more consistent in a variety of events. I think coach (Rebecca) Rhodes has done a terrific job of elevating the sprint side, the relay side,” Kepler said. “So it’s a big kudos to her for how she recruits and who she recruits. And then it’s obviously a great job by the women to work hard and do the things necessary for us to see success not only individually but collectively in these relays.”
The 4x100 relay team is young — Duvall and Riddle are freshmen, while Mangum and Amoah are sophomores — and betting on the youth has paid off for Utah. Amoah, the holdover from the last relay team, was quick to develop chemistry with her new teammates, which has paid dividends on the track.
“I feel like those are my best friends, honestly, and I’m with them day in, day out. We travel together. We either live down the hall in the same building or we’re always doing random things together,” Amoah said. “So I feel like just outside of track, yes, we’re together every day in practice in and out and uplifting each other, but I feel like also outside of track, we’ve been with each other for the past year now, so we’ve been able to have moments and just grow natural chemistry.”
Began clicking
Things began to really click for the group at the Desert Heat Classic in Tucson, Arizona, on the same track that the Big 12 championships would be held on. They entered the Big 12 championship race with a lot of confidence — for good reason, it turned out.
“We knew our potential, we had confidence in ourselves. So we were like, ‘OK, we just need to do some different things, hone in on the technical stuff,” Amoah said.
Now the group will represent Utah at this week’s NCAA West Regionals in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
In total, the Utes are sending eight athletes to the NCAA regionals, marking the fifth-straight time that has happened.
In addition to her 4x100 relay duties, Amoah will compete in the 200-meter, an event in which she finished fourth in the Big 12 championships finals with a time of 22.84. In the prior heat, she set a Utah school record with a time of 22.69.
“I feel like it’s a lot of mental preparation that I’ve been doing,” Amoah said of competing in two events at the NCAAs. “My workouts are good, my body’s good, obviously all this stuff comes with it, but it’s like my mental has to be in a good place for me to believe in myself and know that I can go out there and do what I need to do.”
Lindsey Peters will run the 1,500-meter after qualifying with a time of 4:17.05 and both Mackenzie Rogers and Sona Kourilova will compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase after qualifying with times of 10:06.95 and 10:10.47, respectively.
Annastasia Peters is Utah’s representative in the 10,000-meter after qualifying with a time of 32:45.80.
The action starts on Thursday with the first round and concludes on Saturday with the quarterfinals. The NCAA regionals will be televised on ESPN+.
“Our program is really rolling right now, but the next step is to get as many of these guys to Eugene (for NCAA championships) as possible and to score some points and try to get ourselves in the top 25 and beyond,” Kepler said.
