University of Utah Student Newspapers--The Chronicle | 2013-02-21 | Page 8

DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE 8 Thursday, February 21, 2013 TRACK & FIELD Utes set records, prep for MPSF As a final tune-up before the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships this weekend, the Utah track and field team competed in the Wildcat Invitational last weekend in Ogden. The Utes used the close proximity to their advantage, as many athletes earned top spots throughout the three-day event. Senior Anneli Stahl not only set a personal best in the weight throw, but she broke the school record with a whopping throw of just over 62 feet. Utah's success in the weight throw continued, as Cynthia Sanchez and Aoife Hickey finished second and third, respectively. In the shot put, Destanae Howerton-Davis and Candus Ford finished in second and third place, respectively. "Overall, I thought we had a good meet, but the group that really impressed was this throws group," Utah head coach Kyle Kepler said. "We are starting to see some consistency from them, and with Anneli leading the way, the whole crew had a good day." Other Utes who captured event titles were Kailey Hansen in the high jump and Klau- TWINS Continued from page 6 wanted them to play football," Pam Dalton said. "He kept telling them, 'You've got to play football. You'll never get a good scholarship in baseball. Nobody gets a good scholarship in baseball. You've got to play football.' After he died they're like, 'Mom, we just want to play baseball.' So if he was still alive, he would be apologizing right now." Once they hit high school, baseball became the main focus and they never let up. Their coach at Taylorsville, Jake Brown, always knew he had something special with these identically talented athletes. "They were so much better in high school than most of the players they played against," he said. He also agrees with Pam Dalton on the competitive nature of their relationship. "It gives them another person in their same athletic neighborhood to kind of compete with," Brown said. "Without each other, that ERICKSON Continued from page 6 Ir 1. 7;tikeil 10 ati a. 21 1 :"'sr.hr: o 401 . a idff rne • "11M1111111 Griffin Adams STAFF WRITER of the Year award in 2007 when he led the Sun Devils to a share of the conference title in his first season. He had a record of 31-31 during his tenure there. Erickson said when head coach Kyle Whittingham first contacted him about the job, he wasn't sure if he was up for it. He was staring retirement in the face and seemed at peace with that, but his love of college football couldn't keep him away ___4_4 • 4-4:1 . • • :14.1 :i '214111 • Whit 7,_-,.. .11/4:,141‘. 11 tlt.,7 a_1_114;114',1:1127*-‘.:14441t-'4is..,1;*I „.. lillEdifi,,I,"--:■ -.,L711.1;r44111: 40..1, 71`;. tv. 2.1. 444, 1 11:11_,' , (.1e,.:**` ,4. ,-4-;-,,I.,....1,4,,,,,N.Z.. .,,,,.,,,,,, 44-N,i,.k..11:„vs . ,_-...:;.:4`• 6- ;1114:5- ,;, '-,-....- .:-•.- _-, _ ik",4'146.7-.; • :, T: t ...., sit... * ...t: , • Ii7...e.. i. -- - ___ .- .• ,.. 1, . i - , . i Oil: ■ ■ .".1-17 111}1 14 Y.,, _ , I/ ir i 'I_ 14 44,0Sei :oft wO/riv e, I I 71 ci V ill Is I4 1 W4 04 roc;iro‘ r jfi iifPlif, i ",0 igalaid i44 li A .,: , .,.nr e, ,1fr:Oir .1 4k ,,,ril/fr Ariir.- s,,,,,,, p. er mit1;9 , t A j ,..OK , `v*C' a '7' '7, 41P ii ,. ' ,jrf • '''' 114). ''k 111.11,1,.%fi ' ■ i " fk j -- .102K1P... 4it CHRISTOPHER REEVES/The Daily Utah Chronicle Senior Anneli Stahl swings the hammer throw in the Utah Spring Classic last April. spot in a running event. Going into the final of the 55-meter hurdles as the top seed from the preliminaries, Kaplar grabbed first place with a time of 8.12 seconds. Although Kaplar was pleased with the win, she is already looking ahead to bigger things. "It is always nice to get a win, but despite it, I haven't been running as well as I would like," Kaplar said. "I am hoping to improve my time this weekend [at the MPSF Championships] and to qualify for the final there." The Utes also got a solid performance in Ogden from Alex Shaw-Villagrana, who finished second in the mile. While the Utes felt good about the Wildcat Invitational, they realize there is a bigger picture in store. With only a couple days of rest, they need to be ready to compete in the MPSF Championships this weekend in Seattle. "We have some events that I'm really looking forward to seeing my teammates compete in," Kaplar said. "Our 4x400 meter relay should be really exciting and our 800 meter girls are really strong this year. It will be exciting to watch." dia Rokossa in the pole vault. With the top spot already locked up, Rokossa attempted to clear four meters but barely missed. "Klaudia has been trying to get to that 4-meter mark all season long," Kepler said. "There are a few things we need to tweak, but I think come championship time, she will be able to clear it." On the track, Angela Kaplar was the only Ute to grab a top would be tough to come by for them, being as athletic as they are. It breeds a healthy competition between the two of them that probably makes them both better." Brown shared the same sentiments as the twins, hoping they could continue to play together at the college level. He realized that by keeping them together, they would continue to push each other. As a former coach at the U, he was the first to let them know what he had in Taylorsville, telling the Utah coaching staff that he had a couple of twins that were pretty good. "That bond was something they were looking to continue," Brown said. "I like the idea that they want to go to Utah because they're Utah kids and they want to be a part of the transformation of the University of Utah baseball team and play a role in making that team good, rather than going out and trying to find somewhere that's going to put a giant trophy on their wall and make them look cool to all the people back in Utah." Once they got into the program at the U, they went straight to work. Utah assistant coach Mike Crawford is good friends with Brown. He knew what a great deal Utah was getting on the twins. "Right from the beginning, [Brown] made it very clear that we weren't just getting great baseball players, we were getting absolutely great human beings," Crawford said. "That's been the case. [They're] very coachable. [They] work their butts off to get better and pick up things a lot better than other freshmen usually do or even sophomores and juniors for that sake." Crawford is looking forward to the impact the dynamic duo is going to have on the baseball program from the get-go. "They're going to be a huge part of our program immediately," Crawford said. "They're going to mature. They're not going to be freshmen three weeks from now, let's just put it that way." Not only have the Carroll twins garnered the respect of their coaches, parents and teammates, but they respect each other as well. Dallas Carroll said his brother's best attribute as a player is his willingness to get better each and every day, on and off the field. "He's just a good teammate, too," Dallas said. "Growing up with him and being on the same team, I know that he does help and pushes other people to do better." Dalton says he is proud of his brother too. "Coming in as a freshman and being able to start, I know that not a lot of other freshmen would have that chance, and now he's starting," Dalton Carroll said of his twin. Overall, the Utah baseball team is happy to have them aboard and they're happy to be here. "We're just glad that Utah offered us the same [opportunity]," Dalton Carroll said. "It was just a blessing that we could still play together on the same team." from the sidelines any longer. "I always knew I wanted to get back into it," Erickson said. Credited as one of the original architects of the spread offense, Erickson said the Utes will likely look to run out of the shotgun most of the time, with some readoption mixed in. He said he still has a lot of personal evaluations to do before he and Johnson can take care of the details, but he looks forward to working with quarterback Travis Wilson. "I thought what [Wilson] did, with the injuries that we had last year and then came in and played, did some really good things," Erickson said. "He's 6-foot-6 [inches], he can throw it and he's very, very athletic. He can run, but we want to be able to put the ball in his hands and throw it too, so it'll be a combination of both of those things." Erickson wouldn't say if this would be his last college football coaching job, but he made it clear that he doesn't miss being a head coach. Right now he is taking things one day at a time and isn't worried about how long his tenure at Utah will be, whether it be two years STUDENTS [e-mail] Twitter: @GriffDoug c.mobley@ chronicle.utah.edu Twitter: @Chad_Mobley Or IO. Erickson said he chose to come to Utah for a number of reasons, beginning with his respect for Whittingham. He also considers himself a "West Coast guy" and wanted to stay in this half of the country, but he also sees a new challenge for himself. "I saw a program that was making a change," he said. "For me, it was a real challenge to help them make that move, knowing that we can." 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