ALLENDALE, Mich. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs track & field teams completed the opening day of the 2022 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday evening and had three student-athletes earn First Team All-America status while three additional student-athletes punched their ticket to a final race on Saturday.
 
INSIDE THE NCAA DIVISION II OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
UCCS Men's Score: 10 points (T4th)
UCCS Women's Score: 5 points (T9th)
Location: GVSU Track & Field Stadium | Allendale, Mich.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Junior Peterson Bohannon brought home the first of three Mountain Lion All-America honors in the men's long jump as he recorded a near personal best mark of 7.65m on his first jump of the competition. With a fifth-place finish, Bohannon tallied four points for the UCCS men's team and earned First Team All-America status for the first time in his career as a Mountain Lion. Redshirt sophomore Peyton Turnage and freshman Daryon Wilson were also in action in the men's long jump competition as they each recorded jumps of 7.14m to tie for 14^th place.
• In the women's long jump final, redshirt senior Hannah Meek recorded her best jump of the day in her third attempt as she reached 6.20m to capture a fourth-place finish and tally five points for the UCCS women's team. Meek's First Team All-America nod in the event marks the third consecutive outdoor season (2019, 2021, 2022) that she has earned the designation.
• Redshirt junior Afewerki Zeru added six more points to the total for the men's team as he raced to a bronze medal finish in the men's 10,000m race, crossing the line at 29:02.83. For Zeru, the third-place finish marks the first time in his career that he has earned First Team All-America honors for the outdoor season.
• The Mountain Lions had a trio of runners competing in the second heat of the women's 1500m preliminary race and saw each of the three runners place among the top-12 of the race to qualify for Saturday's final. Redshirt senior Layla Almasri (4:24.76) and sophomore Riley McGrath (4:25.17) finished third and fourth in the heat, respectively, to automatically advance to the final, while sophomore Kate Hedlund clocked a personal best time of 4:26.61 to finish fifth in the heat and 12^th overall to narrowly qualify for the 12-person final on Saturday.
• Redshirt junior Evan Graff was the lone Mountain Lion competing in the men's 1500m prelim, running to a time of 3:49.94 for a 17^th place finish.
• The women's 4x100m relay team of Audrey Bloomquist, Keyanda Bolton, Brittany Fuchs, and Kayla Zink clocked a time of 46.31s in the preliminary race for an 11^th place finish that was just tenths of a second short of qualifying for Saturday's final race.
• Zink and Fuchs were back on the track less than two hours later competing in the women's open 100m dash prelim as Fuchs finished in 16^th place with a time of 11.85s and Zink was just behind her at 11.86s for an 18^th place finish.
• At the men's pole vault, graduate student Dawson Hopkinson made his nationals debut and cleared a bar height of 5.00m to come away with a 13^th place finish.
• Another UCCS student-athlete competing in his first national championship meet was redshirt sophomore Dillon Andrews, who completed the 400m hurdle race in 53.06s for a 17^th place finish.  

BEYOND THE RESULTS

• After one day of competition, the UCCS men's team sits tied for fourth place overall with ten points and the Mountain Lion women's team is tied for ninth place overall with five points.
• Meek's First Team All-America nod in the women's long jump marks the fifth such honor of her outstanding indoor and outdoor track & field career at UCCS.
• Hedlund's 1500m time of 4:26.61 moves her up one spot in the UCCS women's record book to fourth all-time.

UP NEXT

• The Mountain Lions will have a lighter group of athletes competing on the second day of the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships. Meek will get things started at 2:45 p.m. (MT) in the women's triple jump final followed by Zink in the women's 200m prelim at 3:45 p.m. (MT), Chris Hudnall in the men's 110m hurdle at 4:35 p.m. (MT), and Melissa Moreni in the 100m hurdle at 4:50 p.m.

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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.