The Westminster College cross country track and field team broke five school program records between Feb. 11 and Feb. 12 at their meet in Pocatello, Idaho at Idaho State University, according to the Westminster College Athletics page. The five program records were set by:
- Saydi Anderson, first in the 5000-meter run with a time of 17:08.45
- Katie Brotherson, second, prelims in the 400-meter run with a time of 58.85
- Brock Lloyd, third in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.58
- Josii Johnson, first in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:11:84
- Aiden Urban, first in the 400-meter run with a time of 49.44
Saydi Anderson, a junior English and Spanish major who runs cross country and indoor and outdoor track, said the competition was an important race for her team.
“I’m from Idaho and it was the first time a lot of my family watched me run,” Anderson said. “They surrounded the track and on every corner someone was yelling.”
Anderson said it was a special race for the rest of her team because of the number of records broken that day.
Anderson said she felt like part of the reason she was able to accomplish these running times was the accountability she received during the race.
“Every 200 meters my coach told me my time, so 25 times in the race I was told my time and if I was off pace or on pace,” Anderson said.
Aiden Urban, one of the program record holders and a fifth-year student getting his masters in community leadership, said this race was important to him because he is coming back in his fifth year and showing he can still run good times.
“[This is a] big record to me because it’s one I didn’t get for four years,” Urban said. “But I was happy because I was able to improve [my time] and by setting faster times it sets higher goals for the future people coming in.”
Josii Johnson, a junior custom photography and electronic media major who broke the 800-meter program record she originally set last year, said she felt her team came together and supported each other extremely well this season which helped her perform her best too.
“I feel like [this competition] was exciting because it was the first time this season that I had done what I felt like I could do,” Johnson said.
Johnson said her team members were collectively running really well at this competition and sharing that feeling with a team is really special.
