Sports briefs

UVU names Dearden and Reynolds scholar athletes of the month

Blake Reynolds and Eric Dearden have been named the Utah Valley University Athletic Department’s Perry Homes Scholar Athletes for the month of January.

Reynolds, a senior and team captain on the women’s basketball team, has a 3.59 cumulative GPA and has played in all 22 games this season for the Wolverines, starting 20. The exercise science major who hails from Boise, Idaho is averaging career highs of 4.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

Dearden, a junior from Riverton, Utah, carries a 3.76 cumulative GPA. He is currently averaging 4.7 points and 1.2 rebounds for the Wolverines. In UVU’s 64-63 victory over CS Bakersfield on Jan. 23, Dearden scored a career-high 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting, including 2-for-4 from the three-point line and 4-of-6 from the foul line.

Utah Valley’s Trac Norris Named Conference Track & Field Athlete of the Week

Utah Valley’s Trac Norris and South Dakota’s Bethany Buell were named Great West Conference Track & Field Athletes of the Week for the week ending Jan. 24, the conference office announced Friday.

Norris, a freshman from Panguitch, Utah, shattered the school record as he captured the 800-meter run (1:52.70) last Saturday at the Boise State Duals. He continued his hot day for the Wolverines with another victory, going on to win the one-mile run with a blazing time of 4:15.94. With those two individual titles, Norris helped the Utah Valley men’s team go 2-0 against Idaho State and host Boise State.

Buell continued to impress in this early season by breaking her own USD school record in the women’s pole vault with an overall title at the Graphic Edge Alumni Meet on Saturday in Vermillion, S.D. The freshman from St. Louis, Mo. cleared 13-3 to improve the record by three inches and now ranks thirteenth in the nation in the event. Buell cleared on six of her nine vaults before fouling out at 13-6.

Norris’ wasn’t the first Wolverine to receive the conference honor this indoor season – fellow freshman Allah Laryea-Akrong won the award last week.