Senior Ryker Holtzen achieved the second-fastest outdoor 5,000-meter time in Wyoming program history during the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 17. Several members of the Cowboys and Cowgirls track and field teams also set personal or season bests at the event in Azusa, California.
The meet saw strong performances from both teams. For the Cowboys, sophomore Nolan Hoffman started early by placing 11th in his heat of the open “C” section of the 5,000 meters with a personal best of 14:46.38. Redshirt-freshman Tanner Brown finished with a time of 14:58.71 in another section of the same event.
In other events, senior Mac Zastrow posted a personal best in the open “B” section of the men’s 800 meters with a time of 1:51.59 to place seventh overall. Senior Tristan Knueppel ran a season-best time of 1:55.42 in another heat.
Junior Aidan Ramsey recorded a time of 14:25.21 in his race while senior Jacob White crossed with a season-best time of 13:43.97 as one of Wyoming’s top collegiate finishers for that day.
Holtzen closed out Friday night by finishing twelfth in his invitational heat and setting his new personal record at 13:38.40—an improvement over his previous mark by more than ten seconds.
On the women’s side, three Cowgirls competed together in their section’s open “A” heat for the women’s 800 meters; senior Libby Berryhill led her teammates with a finish at fourth place within her heat and fifty-first overall (2:11.60). Sophomore Hanan Aldelemy and sophomore Julia Rudolph also turned out strong times just behind Berryhill.
Junior Hailey Uhre was ninth overall—and fifth within her own heat—in her event’s open “A” section for women’s distance running (16:26.98), coming within two seconds of her all-time best performance.
Wyoming will wrap up its California competitions on Saturday as athletes participate further at both Beach Invitational and Bryan Clay Invitational meets while Cam Burkett competes later that afternoon at Mt. SAC Relays.
