Cheney, Kemboi take home WAC Outstanding Track Performer titles at indoor championships
The Wolverines take home five WAC event championships from Spokane at the WAC Indoor Championships.
Utah Valley University indoor track took home five WAC Championship Individual titles and multiple awards after competing in the two-day WAC Indoor Championships held in Spokane, WA.
The Wolverines swept the WAC Outstanding Track Performer awards after Habtamu Cheney and Everylyn Kemboi had outstanding weekends. Cheney and Kemboi had very similar weekends as both runners won the 3,000m and 5,000m events along with being honored a share of the WAC High Point Award.
Kemboi set a meet record in the 3,000m event with a time of 9:21.33 in her win. Mazzie Melaney Preston and Madison Fillippence also finished in the top five for the Wolverines with Preston finishing at 9:34.42 earning third and Fillippence finishing forth with a time of 9:44.49. Kemboi defended her WAC Indoor title in the 5K event finishing with a time of 16:00.32 earning back-to-back titles.
Cheney, the redshirt junior, took home both distance titles this past weekend. Cheney won the men’s 5K with a time of 14:08.84 while Wolverine teammates Max Mahon and Kale Sharp placed sixth and seventh in the event with times of 14:28.36 and 14:30.41.
After taking the 5k title on Friday, Cheney took home the 3k title after chasing down the leader in the final 100 meters finishing with a time of 8:13.73. Three Wolverines followed shortly behind Cheney as Joel Mendez finished at 8:21.73, Sharp at 8:24.19, and Mahoon at 8:25.80. The trio finished sixth, seventh, and eighth.
Aaron Johnson won the Men’s Long Jump with a 7.54 meter leap that came on his seventh attempt which passed his own season-high.
Both Wolverine teams placed in the top half of the WAC Indoor Championships The men finished fourth with 93 points, 46.5 points behind Grand Canyon University who scored 139.5 points and took home the men’s team title. The women placed fifth with 81.5 points just 18 points behind Stephen F. Austin who took home the women’s team title.
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Josh is a senior at UVU, studying Communications and graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Communications in Spring 2023. Along with writing for the Review, Josh is a member of UVU’s PRSSA Chapter. Josh will be pursuing sports media after his time at UVU is complete.