COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs Track & Field programs hosted their first ever home meet in the brand new Mountain Lion Fieldhouse for the inaugural Colorado Running Company UCCS Invite that took place on Saturday.

Competing on their home turf for the first time in program history, the Mountain Lions broke in the new facility by recording one auto mark from Skylyn Webb (800m) and a total of eight provisional marks from Hannah Meeks (Long Jump, Triple Jump), Dakota Abbott (Long Jump), Kayla Zink (60m), Jada Carr (Long Jump), Afeworki Zeru (5000m), Webb (800m), Charlie Forbes (60m Hurdles).  

These top performers as well as other UCCS top performers in the track events include:

3000m: Luke Rodriguez posted the best time on the men's side with a time of 9:00.74 with Katie Novak registering the third best time for the women at 10:07.71.

5000m: Runners Afeworki Zeru and Maia Austin top the lists in the men's and women's 5000m with times of 14:37.15 and 18:24.74 respectively.

60m Hurdles: Freshman, Cameron Tracey posted a time of 9.29 for a sixth place finish in the women 60m, while Charlie Forbes led a field of seven with a time of 8.07 which is good for the fifth best time in all of NCAA Division II.

60m: Kayla Zink and Deshon Elcock both finished second, with Zink posting a provisional mark of 7.62 and Elcock recording a time of 6.92.

Men 1 Mile Run: Matthew Schramm came to post a time of 4:23.43 to finish third behind two unattached runners as he competed in his first indoor meet as a Mountain Lion.

200m: In another second place finish, Elcock recorded a time of 22.05 which was right behind the leading time of 22.29. Sophomore Dejah Glover would be the top finisher on the women's side with a time of 25.61 which put her sixth in a field of 33 runners.

400m: Tristan Hinkley (52.05) just barely beat out teammate Andrew Thompson (52.15) on the men's side with Hinkley finishing in the middle of the pack at eighth, while Glover climbed the ladder to finish fourth in the women's race with a time of 1:00.77.

800m: David Higgins came out strong to have the third best time (1:55.86) in the field as the top runner in the men's race posted an automatic mark. Skylyn Webb repeated the same result as the top runner on the men's side as Webb posted the top time in NCAA DII (2:05.72) for an automatic qualifying mark.

4x400 Relay: For the UCCS Women, the team of Dejah Glover, Kaija Crowe, Skylyn Webb, and Grace Wenham strung together the third best time of 4:05.02. On the men's side, the team of Caleb Simons, Deshon Elcock, Charlie Forbes, and Angel Laca combined to record the top time of the meet (3:23.05).

After hosting their first home meet, UCCS now takes ownership of four Mountain Lion Fieldhouse men's records in the 5000m (Afeworki), 3000m (Rodriguez), 60m hurdles (Forbes), men's 4x400 (Laca, Elcock, Forbes, Simons). For the women's facility records, the Mountain Lions own the 800m (Webb) and 5000m (Austin) records.

Top performers for the Mountain Lions in the field events include:

Weight Throw: Conor Bertles got things started for the Mountain Lions in the inaugural meet by overpowering a field of seven throwers and finishing with a mark of 16.11m (52' 10.25''). For the women, Kelsey Calhoun registered the sixth best distance at 14.00m (45' 11.25'')

Shot Put: Bertles (14.64m-48' 0.5'') best the competition once again as he edged out teammate Colton Homuth (14.63m-48' 0'') by just half an inch.

Pole Vault: Brenna Kuskie of the women's team finished in the middle of 14 competitors as she recorded a height of 3.49m (11' 5.25'') for the Mountain Lions. Junior Cooper Daniels hoisted himself up during competition having the third best height at 4.42m (14' 6'').

High Jump: The third best height belonged to Celia Smith who got up to register a jump of 1.62m (5' 3.75''), with the top four jumps on the men's side belonging to Mountain Lions. But Derek Valdez walked away with the best jump at 2.03m (6' 8'').

Long Jump: Posting the 10^th best jump in DII, Freshman Dakota Abbott recorded a provisional mark with a distance of 7.19m (23' 7.25''). Hannah Meeks came to make a statement for the women jumping her way to a provisional mark distance of 5.89m (19' 4''), which is also the third best mark in Division II. Jada Carr was not far behind as she recorded a provisional mark of her own with a jump of 5.73m (18' 9.75'').

Triple Jump: Meeks added a second provisional mark with a jump of 12.08m (39' 7.75'') while finishing with the second best distance. Abbott leaped to the best jump in a field of four as he recorded a distance of 14.44m (47' 4.5'').

Through six field events, the Mountain Lions now claim four facility records on the men's side with Bertles owning the shot put and weight throw, Abbott owning the triple jump, and Valdez taking the high jump. As for the women, UCCS will claim one facility record in the long jump with Meeks holding the record.

The Mountain Lions Track & Field will now have some downtime before their next meet as they come back to host their second home meet of the season with The Quad on Saturday, Jan. 19.