Plourde Captures 1500m Championship Title with Record Breaking Run

WALNUT, Calif. – The Utah track & field team had its best showing at the Pac-12 Championships to date this weekend after closing out the three-day meet at Hilmer Lodge Stadium with 45 total points, its highest point total since joining the league in 2011-12 by 22 points.
 
The 45 points saw the Women of Utah finish ninth-overall in the team standings, which was also the highest finish ever in the Pac-12 era.
 
“First, congrats to Amy and softball,” head coach Kyle Kepler post meet. “Such a great season and exciting comeback to win the title. Secondly. What. A. Meet! Highest points and highest finish, two champions, two school records, a meet record and a group of women who competed their hearts and guts out for every point. Truly inspiring performances.”
 
Simone Plourde gave Utah its biggest highlight of the day when she led a stacked field wire-to-wire in the 1500m run to capture Utah’s second individual title ever with a meet record-breaking time of 4:09.48. Plourde’s run broke Shelby Houlihan’s previous record of 4:11.06 set back in 2015 and was a new PR for the junior – which also improved her hold in the Utah records book.

WATCH | ???????????? ?????????????? breaks the #Pac12TF 1500m record and her own Utah record with a run of 4?:0?9?.4?8? to give the Women of Utah its 2nd individual @pac12 Champion in program history??#GoUtes | #UtahTFXC pic.twitter.com/VF6cpB7eeT

— Utah T&F/XC (@Utah_trackfield) May 14, 2023

 
“I felt like it could be a pretty good day based on the first two days,” Kepler said. “Then the 4×1 went out and won their heat and grabbed fourth-overall to start the day. Bella ran a great race to grab fourth in her final Pac-12 meet and Harley scoring as a freshman was terrific. The 4×4 grabbing points on tired legs was a great way to close out the meet. Dinedye broke a school record that had stood for awhile but we know she can go a lot faster when she runs a cleaner race. Finally, Simone ran a very brave race to claim the 1500m title with a meet record and school record time against one of the deepest fields ever at the Pac-12 meet. To lead wire-to-wire against that field was truly remarkable.”

WATCH | Simone Plourde chats with the @Pac12Network crew after capturing just the 2nd #Pac12TF individual event title in program history??#GoUtes | #UtahTFXC