UCCS 4X100 Team Sets New School Record with a Little Help from Friends

FORT COLLINS - Sometimes we have to get by with a little help from our friends.

With the enlisted assistance of UCCS soccer players Mike Mason and Dami Oladiran, the UCCS men's 4x100 meter relay team blasted its way to a new school record time of 43.07 at Saturday's Colorado State-hosted Jack Christiansen Invitational. Despite the cold, breezy conditions, David Mueller and Jason Shaver along with Mason and Oladiran took the relay team to a fourth-place berth in a Division I- laden field.

"We're really glad we have those two extra guys on board," said sprints coach David Harmer. "They're doing really well and have helped us out a lot on the relays and in the sprints."

The 4x100 was the first event of the day for all of the men on the relay. Mueller, Oladiran, and Mason all went on to capture ninth, 15th, and 25th places respectively in the 200-meter dash. They were accompanied by Rick Rimbert (26th) and Vy Nguyen (29th).

Oladiran also took 10th in the 100-meter dash where Mason also placed 17th and Nguyen took 19th.

Shaver's time of 52.22 in the 400-meter dash later in the day earned him 17th.

Brian Hopkins and Rimbert both made their final preparations for the decathlon in which they will compete in at the RMAC Championships earlier next week.

Hopkins placed ninth in the 110-meter hurdles, followed by Josh Jones in 13th and Rimbert in 17th.

Hopkins then moved on to place 16th in the 400-meter hurdles, followed by Jones in 20th. Anthony Davis took 16th in the 800 meters in 1:59.

On the women's side, UCCS women's soccer player Julia Saenz also offered her assistance to the team as she helped the women's 4x400 meter relay team of Kelsey Barry, Kylie Hongiford, and Tracy Falsetto to their third-place berth in 4:06.01.

Saenz also took 18th in the 100 meter dash.

Barry earlier competed in the 400 meter dash, where she was the Mountain Lions' top finisher in 8th place in 60 seconds flat. Just off of Barry's pace was Honigford in 10th, Falsetto in 11th, and Jenny Hunt in 16th despite a niggling hamstring.

Hunt and Honigford teamed with Ailena McDonald and Jessica Luna to help take the women's 4x100 meter relay to a sixth place finish in 52.09.

Luna and McDonald also placed 19th and 23rd respectively in the women's 200 meter dash.

Paige Hall continued her steady improvement after rebounding from illness incurred early in the season to take 14th in the 800 meter run in 2:28.

In the women's 1500, Alicia Del Pardo claimed victory in the first heat of the race as she placed 14th overall with her time of 5:14. Leslie Bennett claimed 24th in 5:38.

An under-the-weather Alex Tiernan took 19th in the 37 man-field of the 1500 in 4:17 and was followed by Joel Kienitz in 24th with 4:21.

Kaitlin Frier improved upon her debut steeplechase as she claimed second place in a time of 12:20, a 17 second improvement from her previous, and only, steeplechase.

Brad Katchigan took 6th on the men's side of the steeple in 10.53.

Carlos Ruibal led the men in the 5000 meter run as he finished in the middle of a large field to take 9th place in 16:15. He was followed by Ted Schultz, who claimed an enormous personal best time of 16:57 to take 16th and was followed by Allen Browne in 17th in 17:25.

In the women's 5000, Tavia Hammond took eighth in a personal best of 19:41.

On the field events side, All-American Steve Gomez continued on a successful jumping campaign as he claimed victory in the high jump with a height of 2.00 meters.

Josi Heer, also a member of the UCCS women's soccer team, placed eighth in the women's triple jump. Her distance of 9.86 wasjust ahead of McDonald, who took ninth.

McDonald also took 10th in the women's long jump in 4.53 meters.

The pair of Trevor Nau and Preston Williams took third and fourth place finishes in the javelin throw as Nau threw to 50.73 meters and Williams to 37.89 meters.

Jenn Callan took 19th in the discus with a throw of 34.93 meters while Williams also took 23rd on the men's side of the event.

The Jack Christiansen Invite marked the final meet of regular season for the Mountain Lions as they will head to Alamosa on May 4th and 5th for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships.