PUEBLO, Colo. – University of Colorado Colorado Springs freshman
Molly Klotz won the first RMAC outdoor championship for a Mountain Lion woman since 2011 with her victory in the 400-meter hurdles to lead UCCS on the final day of the 2015 RMAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships today at the Neta and Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl. The Mountain Lions finished ninth in the team standings.
Klotz won the hurdles with a raw time of 1 minute, 1.54 seconds, and her program-record altitude-adjusted time of 1:01.65 will unofficially move her into No. 25 in the Division II performance lists. She is the first Mountain Lion champion in the 400-meter hurdles in program history and the first Mountain Lion champion in a running event since Shannon Payne's victory in the 5,000-meter run in 2008. UCCS last won outdoor conference titles in 2011 with Lauren Graham in the pole vault. It's the sixth outdoor conference championship in any event in program history.
Jessica Todd finished one spot away from all-conference honors in the hurdles with a fifth-place performance. She ran one-hundredth of a second faster from yesterday's finals with 1:04.33 for a season-best altitude-adjusted time of 1:04.44. UCCS scored 14 of its 27 teams points in the 400-meter hurdles.
Alicia Lawrence and
Chelsea Martus each contributed four points for the Mountain Lions with a pair of fifth-place finishes. Lawrence ran 24.88 seconds in the 200-meter dash for a season-best sea level time of 24.95 seconds, and Martus ran 2:19.81 in the 800-meter run.
The remaining points from the Mountain Lions came from the 4x100-meter relay and 4x400-meter relays. The 4x400 team of Todd, Martus,
Amber McAfee and Klotz finished sixth with 4:00.27 to score three points. The 4x100-meter team of
Hayley Gantt, Todd, Tacey Divittorio and Lawrence ran 48.21 seconds for seventh to score two points.
UCCS will be in action again at the Colorado Mines Last Chance Meet on May 10. It will be the final opportunity to improve or record qualifying marks for the NCAA Division II National Championships later this month.
