Isaiah J. Downing

Track & Field Sweeps RMAC Indoor Championships for Third Consecutive Season

2/26/2022 9:38:00 PM

By: Tyler Tvelia, Assistant Sports Information Director

Day Two: Track & Field Sweeps RMAC Indoor Championships for Third Consecutive Season

GUNNISON, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's and women's track & field teams swept the RMAC indoor conference titles for the third consecutive season as they wrapped up day two of the RMAC Indoor Championships inside the Mountaineer Fieldhouse on the campus of Western Colorado University. The Mountain Lions combined for nine gold medal performances over the course of the two-day meet, with the women's team compiling 179.50 points and the men's team tallying 168.50 points.

INSIDE THE RMAC INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Location: Mountaineer Fieldhouse | Gunnison, Colo.
Track Size: 200-meters
Elevation: 7,723 ft.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Redshirt freshman Melissa Moreni got things started for the Mountain Lions on the track on Saturday, picking up a quick ten points with a gold medal in the 60m hurdles as she broke the 60m hurdle school record for the second time in as many days with a time of 8.47s. Moreni improves her national qualifying mark by .10 seconds to move back into the top-ten in Division II.
Terra Valadez joined Moreni on the podium, racing to a third-place finish with a personal best time of 8.96s, while Lizzie Waters (9.06s) and Alexis Carroll (9.15s) were the sixth and seventh finishers to bring the Mountain Lions point total for the event to 21.
At the men's 60m hurdle, sophomore Chris Hudnall improved his national qualifying mark for a second straight day, completing the race in 8.00s to claim a silver medal. Hudnall also improves his second-ranking mark in UCCS history by .05 seconds.
After an impressive day in the preliminary races yesterday, the women's sprinters came back even stronger on day two, sweeping the top three spots in the 60m dash with Kayla Zink earning the gold medal at 7.44s, Brittany Fuchs taking silver at 7.58s, and Victoria Farinas claiming a bronze medal at 7.60s. Freshman Margaret Gardella also got in on the scoring action with a sixth-place finish at 7.63s.
Zink and Fuchs came back in the women's 200m final to once again take the top two spots in the race with Zink narrowly edging the school record she set yesterday at 24.54s to take the gold. Fuchs would earn the silver medal as she matched her time from the prelims at 24.73s. Both marks qualify as NCAA provisional marks, and Zink's time currently sits in the top-ten of Division II for the event. Keyanda Bolton and Gardella would also finish seventh and eighth to bring the Mountain Lion's combined point total in the event to 27 points.
The men's sprints team of Kymani Sterling and Justice Mendoza also hit the track running as Sterling posted a runner-up finish in the 60m dash at 6.79s and Mendoza clocked a blazing time of 21.74s to earn a silver medal in the 200m dash.
The men's multi athletes completed their final three events in the heptathlon on Saturday, with Thorben Hast recording 5,217 points for a silver medal finish and teammate Sam Repsher close on his tail in third place with a score of 5,030 points.
Skye Ciccarelli saved his best performance in the men's high jump for the conference championships as he cleared 2.12m to take the gold medal in the event and improve his provisional standing for the season. The same could be said for Tanner Walsh, who cleared a season-best 2.07m to take the silver medal.
At the triple jump pits, Lydia Pavlenko took home a silver medal as she reached 11.81m, while senior Hannah Meek added six points with a bronze medal finish at 11.76m. Audrey Bloomquist also scored in the fifth position at 11.59m while Alexis Carroll rounded out the Mountain Lion's jumpers with a seventh-place leap of 11.40m.
In the men's triple jump, Dakota Abbott was a silver medal finisher after jumping out 15.05m, while Peyton Turnage (14.40m) and Peterson Bohannon (14.33m) took sixth and seventh to score for the UCCS men's team.
The Mountain Lions claimed another gold medal recipient in the men's 400m, where Dillon Andrews was the top finisher with a time of 49.80s. Ryan O'Neal also posted a strong performance to finish fourth at 50.17s.
On the women's side, Amber Davis established a new 400m PR as she raced to a fourth-place finish with a time of 58.40s. Davis was followed by Lizzie Waters in seventh at 59.48s.
Afewerki Zeru and Layla Almasri each improved their national qualifying marks in the men's and women's 3,000m races. Zeru took the silver medal with a raw time of 8:31.26 which after the altitude and track size conversion drops to 8:00.16 and currently ranks among the top-ten in Division II. Almasri earned a fourth-place finish in the women's 3,000m, clocking a converted time of 9:29.43 that improves her national mark by nearly ten seconds.
Prior to racing in the 3K, Almasri also claimed a silver medal finish in the women's mile with her converted time of 4:47.78 being almost identical to her previous season best. Riley McGrath also joined the scoring with a fifth-place finish at a converted time of 4:53.15.
In the men's mile, Evan Graff earned eight points for the Mountain Lion men, posting a silver medal finish with a raw time of 4:18.84.
The men's 4x400m team of Dillon Andrews, Angel Laca, Peterson Bohannon and Ryan O'Neal closed out day two with one more gold medal for the tally, besting CSU Pueblo's relay team by less than half a second at 3:21.17.

BEYOND THE RESULTS

With 179.50 points, the UCCS women's team finishes with an 88.5 point lead over the next closest team, Colorado Mesa University (91 points).
The Mountain Lion men's team finishes conference championships with a 67.5 point margin over Colorado Mesa (101 points).
The UCCS men's and women's team combined for 31 total podium finishes across the two-day meet, including nine gold medals, 15 silver medals and seven bronze medals.
With her 20 points contributed to the women's team as the winner of the 60m and 200m dashes, sprinter Kayla Zink was named the Co-Athlete of the Meet on the women's side.

UP NEXT

With conference championships now in the rearview mirror, the Mountain Lions will await the announcement of the participant field for the 2021-2022 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships on Tuesday, March 1 at 4 p.m. (MT). The National Championship meet will be held at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan., on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12.

SOCIAL
Twitter – @GoMountainLions
Instagram – @gomountainlions
Facebook – GoMountainLions

As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 16 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.

Day One: Mountain Lions Post Eight Podium Finishes on Day One of RMAC Indoor Championships

GUNNISON, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's and women's track and field teams completed an exciting first day at the 2021-2022 RMAC Indoor Championships with a total of eight podium finishes, three gold medals, and 11 new or improved provisional marks while also qualifying 15 athletes for finals races taking place tomorrow. The Mountain Lions also saw two school records fall and broke a pair of Mountaineer Fieldhouse facility records.

INSIDE THE RMAC INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Location: Mountaineer Fieldhouse | Gunnison, Colo.
Track Size: 200-meters
Elevation: 7,723 ft.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Mountain Lion multi athletes got things started on day one of the conference championship meet and wasted little time making their mark. In the pentathlon, redshirt sophomore Maggie Remsberg and junior Ella McKinna-Worrell combined to bring in 14 points for the UCCS women's team as they each made their way to the podium. Remsberg tallied a mark of 3,198 points for a second-place finish, while McKinna-Worrell took the bronze medal with a score of 3,130 points.
On the men's side, redshirt freshman Thorben Hast and junior Sam Repsher posted strong starts through the first four events of the heptathlon and currently sit in second and fourth place, respectively, heading into the second day of action.
In the men's long jump, freshman Daryon Wilson made his final jump count as he took off for a 7.53m jump that earned ten points and a gold medal. Wilson's mark vaults him into the top-ten for the long jump in Division II and ranks as the second furthest jump in UCCS program history. Peterson Bohannon (7.12m, 5pts), Peyton Turnage (7.04m, 4pts), Hast (6.91m, 2pts), and Richard Safoh (6.85m, 1pt) were also in on the scoring action as the men's long jump team combined to tally 22 points.
Senior Hannah Meek continued her season-long dominance in the women's long jump, reaching 6.22m in her first jump of the day to take the gold medal and break the Mountaineer Fieldhouse facility record in the process. Behind Meek, Lydia Pavlenko (5.40m, 5th) and Audrey Bloomquist (5.38m, 6th) also got in range to score points with the three women joining up to tally 17 total points.
More strong Mountain Lion scoring performances came on the track, where Afewerki Zeru ran away with the 5,000m race to earn a gold medal and ten points for the UCCS men's team while breaking the Mountaineer Fieldhouse record by eight seconds at 14:51.37. Zeru's converted time of 13:54.67 pushes him into the top-ten on the Division II performance list for the 5,000m.
Redshirt junior Hannah Ellis also ran a strong race in the women's 5,000m, claiming a silver medal with a raw time of 18:07.64 to pick up eight points. After the altitude and track size conversion, Ellis' mark of 17:01.54 improves her provisional standing by over 17 seconds.
The Mountain Lions also managed to corral points in the men's and women's Distance Medley Relay races, with the women's team of Riley McGrath, Ashten Loeks, Michela Hewitt and Kate Hedlund earning a bronze medal and six points with a raw time of 12:17.20 and the men's team of Gavin Harden, Angel Laca, Joseph Hamilton and Evan Graff posting a fifth-place finish to produce four points.
UCCS found success at the pole vault runway on Friday as well, where graduate student Dawson Hopkinson earned a silver medal and locked in eight points by clearing 4.93m. Freshman Holden Daniels would effectively reach 4.38m to add another 1.5 points to the men's tally.
Sophomore Justyn Loper also got in on the scoring action in the men's weight throw with a heave of 17.80m, good for a fourth-place finish and five points. Anna Holland and Sydney Marr chipped in on the women's side, with Holland setting a new personal best at 17.75m to reach the podium with a bronze medal and score six points while Marr finished eighth at 16.79m to add one more point. Holland's PR throw ranks as the second-best throw in program history and improves her provisional mark for the season by 0.63m.
UCCS also put up a plethora of stellar performances in the preliminary races on the track, with 15 Mountain Lions qualifying for finals races on day two of the conference championships.
Redshirt freshman Melissa Moreni will move on in the 60m hurdle as the number one seed in the race after breaking her own school record with a blistering time of 8.58 seconds. Three additional Mountain Lions will join Moreni in the final, including Terra Valadez (5^th, 9.07s), Lizzie Waters (7^th, 9.13s), and Alexis Carroll (8^th, 9.18s).
Sophomore Chris Hudnall was the Mountain Lion's lone qualifier in the men's 60m hurdle as his personal best raw time of 8.05s will have him as the number two seed in Saturday's final. Hudnall's impressive mark ranks second in the UCCS record books, and his altitude-converted time of 8.09s improves his national standings into the top-20 in Division II.
The Mountain Lion's strong group of women's 60m sprinters continued to make their mark on Friday, earning four of the nine finals spots for day two of the meet. Senior Kayla Zink paced the group as the top qualifier at 7.48s and was joined by freshman Victoria Farinas as the third seed (7.62s), Margaret Gardella as the fifth seed (7.65s), and Brittany Fuchs as the seventh seed (7.67s).
Freshman Kymani Sterling made a statement in the men's 60m as he won his heat at 6.74s to make the final as the top qualifier. Justice Mendoza was also among the top nine finishers in the preliminary round at 6.95s and will accompany Sterling in the final tomorrow. Sterling's top-seeded mark vaults him to second all-time in the UCCS record book while improving his national qualifying mark.
The aforementioned squad of women's sprinters came back to compete in the 200m preliminary race later in the day and did not disappoint. Fuchs led off the first heat by racing to a school record of 24.73s, but her record would not last long as Zink posted a blazing 24.55s mark in the third heat to take over the program record. Zink and Fuchs move on to the final as the number one and two seeds and will be joined by Gardella and Keyanda Bolton who qualified in the seventh and eighth spots at 25.30s and 25.39s, respectively.
Sterling and Mendoza also made a return to the track for the men's 200m and each qualified for the finals with Sterling entering tomorrow as the second ranked qualifier at 21.85s and Mendoza the number three seeded qualifier at 21.90s. With their converted times of 21.59s and 21.64s, respectively, Sterling and Mendoza each made their way onto the national qualifying list for the 200m for the first time this season.
Moving to the men's 400m preliminary race, Ryan O'Neal and Dillon Andrews claimed the top two spots in the final as O'Neal finished first at 49.88s and Andrews was a close second at 50.14s. The women's 400m crew also added a pair of finals qualifiers, with Amber Davis finishing fourth at 58.81s followed by Lizzie Waters in sixth at 58.87s.

BEYOND THE RESULTS

The UCCS women's team is currently in the lead with 52 points after the first day of action. Colorado Mesa University's women's team sits in second place with 37 points.
The Mountain Lion men's team also currently leads the meet after day one with 50.5 points. Colorado School of Mines is a close second with 41 points in the bag.

UP NEXT

The Mountain Lions will look to carry their momentum over into day two of the RMAC Indoor Championships tomorrow morning. The heptathlon 60m hurdle and men's open high jump will kick off the action at 10 a.m. followed by track events starting at 12 p.m.

Print Friendly Version