Payne Takes Third at RMAC Championships

Shannon Payne took third place in the women's 5,000-meter run this past weekend at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships, the best finish by a Mountain Lion runner at the meet.

Payne completed the distance at the Kearney, Neb. track in 17 minutes 38.33 seconds, a full 34.24 seconds ahead of the fourth-place finisher, Adams State's Sandra Montoya. Payne's effort earned the Mountain Lions six team points.

One pleasant surprise came from UCCS freshman Kaitlyn Marsolek, who finished seventh in the 400-meter dash. The Mountain Lions have traditionally concentrated on the longer distance events, so to have a sprinter earn two team points showed the growth of the coach Graeme Badger's program. Marsolek was also a member of the UCCS distance 4X400 relay team (with Tiffany Flint, Cherdaria Mack and Leah Thompson) that took sixth place at the meet.

The Mountain Lions' other relay, the distance medley comprised of Sarah Shepard, Ashley Birger, Flint and Tina Gray, had a solid Fourth-place finish. Shepard also took fifth in the 3,000 meter run, while Gray took eighth in the mile.

Several Mountain Lions runners were competing at other than their optimal distances. Badger prefers to focus his runners on competing at nationals, using other meets, including the conference championship, as training runs or to earn national qualifying times.