Going the distance

McCabe and Rowberry both set new school records

Students living in the Orem/Provo area who complain about parking issues on campus might want to consider running to school and avoid parking altogether.

Think about it – most students either live close to campus or may even live by the neighboring university four miles down the road.

Now, some would say four miles is a long way to run. Unless that someone is one of the members of the UVU distance track and field team.

Junior Tim Rowberry and sophomore Josh McCabe might laugh at those who claim four miles is too far. In fact, they might go on to say that they could go from their apartment to class faster than most students in a car.

McCabe ran the 5,000m (approx. 3.1 miles) in a time of 14 minutes, 24.71 seconds at the San Francisco State Distance Carnival in the San Francisco’s Bay Area on March 25. That is under the average amount of time it takes for a student to walk to their car in the morning and drive to campus.

Now, that time doesn’t even include parking, which on a good day may take five to 10 minutes.

While looking for that parking spot, Rowberry just ran the mile. Twice.

In UVU’s first outdoor meet this season at UNLV, Rowberry ran the 1,500m (.932 miles) with a time of 3 minutes, 50.97 seconds. Just one week before that in the conclusion of the indoor season he ran the mile event in 4 minutes, 10.53 seconds.

“Our athletes run with pride,” Coach Scott Houle said. “Every day these kids work harder and harder to improve, and their results are showing it. As a team we are breaking a lot of personal and school records early on and they’ll never stop trying to break more.”

Both times for McCabe and Rowberry were school records, earning a first place finish in the event for Rowberry while McCabe finished just two seconds behind a first place finish in his event, taking second.

McCabe was named the Great West Conference Athlete of the Week last week for his performance in San Francisco.

So next time there is a complaint about parking, lace up some running shoes – McCabe and Rowberry would.

The Wolverines will be back on the road as they head to the Mt. Sac Invitational and the Azusa Pacific Invitational, both held in California in mid April.

Fans can support the team when they compete locally at the BYU Multi Meeet and BYU Invitational April 20-23.

The only other chance for fans to see Utah Valley’s great runners will be the Great West Conference Championships, which the Wolverines will host this year on their new track May 12-14.