ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs track & field teams went up against professional athletes as well as Division I and Division II student-athletes on Friday as the Mountain Lions call it a day at the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invitational, hosted by University of New Mexico.

UCCS had their biggest showing in the unseeded 400m as the Mountain Lions had a cluster of student-athletes compete on both the men's and women's sides. The Mountain Lion men competed in a field of nine athletes as Dillon Andrews slid into fourth place at a time of 50.69s with Alex Beckley taking ninth at a time of 53.96s. For the UCCS women, Dejah Glover came out as the top Mountain Lion finisher as she clocked in at 59.31s for 20^th place.

Junior Kayla Zink competed in her first track event of the new year as she had the fastest time for the Mountain Lions in the women's 200m with a time of 25.54s. On the men's side, Deshon Elcock finished the men's 200m in 21.98s to record a 21^st place finish on the first day.

In the field events, freshman Justyn Loper competed in his first event repping the black and gold as he heaved a mark of 17.31m to claim sixth in the men's weight throw. Junior Colton Homuth worked his way into the top-10 as a distance of 15.31m landed him in 10^th place. Sierra Suazo then stepped in for the women's weight throw where she registered a distance of 15.35m to record a 13^th place finish.

High jump student-athlete Faith Novess was the lone Mountain Lion in the women's high jump as the freshman bested over half of the 26 athletes with a height of 1.55m to take 11^th in the competition.

With the first event starting later in the afternoon on Friday, the Mountain Lions will turn around for an early start on Saturday as UCCS' first event will be at 9 a.m. with the women's shot put.