COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs track & field team continued their early season success on Friday at the Mountain Lion Fieldhouse as the men's and women's teams combined to post 11 NCAA provisional marks and break two school records on day one of the Colorado Running Company Pre-Holiday Invite & Multi.
 
INSIDE THE COLORADO RUNNING COMPANY PRE-HOLIDAY INVITE & MULTI
Location: Mountain Lion Fieldhouse | Golden, Colo.
Track Size: 200-meters (flat)
Elevation: 6,291 ft
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Mountain Lions saw historic performances take place in the throws ring as both the men's and women's school records for the weight throw were upended on Friday afternoon. On the men's side, junior Luke Hard posted a new personal best mark of 18.91m on his fourth attempt of the day to claim first place in the event and put his name at the top of the men's record book. In the women's competition, redshirt senior Anna Holland shattered her personal record for the event as she established a new school record with a first-place mark of 19.00m on her fifth attempt of the afternoon. Hard and Holland's tosses also both registered as NCAA provisional qualifying marks, with Hard currently ranking seventh in the nation and Holland leading the nation for the event based on the 2023-24 NCAA Division II Indoor Qualifying List entering the weekend.
• Six more provisional qualifying marks were secured at the long jump runway with the men's and women's teams each sweeping the top three spots in their respective competitions. Redshirt senior Audrey Bloomquist led the way on the women's side as she took the spot overall while exploding past her previous personal best mark in the event with an incredible national qualifying leap of 6.11m. Redshirt junior Christine Bailey finished second overall in the women's long jump as she came up just shy of her season-best national qualifying mark, while redshirt sophomore Madissyn Moore improved her existing provisional mark with a personal best leap of 5.91m that was good for third overall in the field.
• On the men's side, redshirt senior Peterson Bohannon was the top overall finisher as he posted his first provisional mark of the indoor season with a monster leap of 7.47m. Redshirt junior Richard Safoh also put forth a personal best effort with an improvement on his existing NCAA qualifying mark as he leapt to a second place jump of 7.37m, while redshirt senior Peyton Turnage grabbed the third position overall and improved his existing provisional mark to 7.34m.
• In the early portion of the day, redshirt senior Faith Novess competed in her first pentathlon of the indoor season and went on to complete the combined event with a total of 3,406 points, which registers as an NCAA qualifying mark for the event. Novess posted a personal best effort in the shot put with a toss of 10.40m and went on to record solid marks that were near her personal bests in the 60m hurdles (9.18s), high jump (1.65m), long jump (5.31m), and 800m (2:43.17).
• In the men's heptathlon, which was taking place simultaneously with the women's pentathlon, redshirt junior Thorben Hast went on to record 2,754 points across his first four events to sit in tenth place overall while freshman Patrick O'Leary also notched a strong effort in his first collegiate combined event with a score of 2,535 points to sit in 13^th place after day one. Hast and O'Leary will finish their final three events tomorrow beginning at 10 a.m.
• In his first competition of the indoor season, sophomore Andrew Muncy put together a strong race in the men's 400m dash as he earned a first-place finish with a raw time of 49.53s, while freshman Ashton Whisler also made his season and collegiate debut in the event with a strong third-place time of 49.70s. On the women's side of the 400m, a pair of Mountain Lions ran sub one-minute times with junior Alyssa Lopez pacing the pack with a third-place finish in the event at a time of 59.54 and freshman Addie Wilson posting a time of 59.55s to finish fourth overall in her first collegiate race.
• The Mountain Lions also saw some exceptional performances take place at the straightaway lanes in the center of the track with the preliminary rounds of the men's and women's 60m hurdles and 60m dashes. In the women's 60m hurdles, senior Melissa Moreni blew away the field as she notched an NCAA qualifying time of 8.64s (8.68c) that ranked her as the top qualifier for tomorrow's final race. In addition, UCCS had four more student-athletes qualify for the final, including freshman Krissie Sanders (9.03s), sophomore Leyah Martinez (9.24s), sophomore Sydney Samuels (9.26s), and redshirt sophomore Gigi Douillard (9.79s).
• In the women's 60m dash prelim, junior Victoria Farinas was the top overall finisher as she raced to a provisional qualifying time of 7.60s (7.64c) to qualify for Saturday's event final. Freshman Taryn Fettig and redshirt junior Keyanda Bolton joined Farinas in qualifying for the final as they matched each other with times of 7.79s (7.83c).
• UCCS secured five of the eight qualifying spots in the 28-person preliminary round of the men's 60m dash, with redshirt senior Justice Mendoza (6.90s), sophomore Daryn Ofori-Kuragu (6.93s), and redshirt senior Donovan Mini (6.93s) each winning their respective heats with times inside the top-five overall in the field. Freshmen Luke Trinrud and TJ Nissen also qualified for the final, with Trinrud posting a personal best time of 6.99s and Nissen crossing the line in 7.02s.
• For a second straight week, freshman Nigel James led the Mountain Lions in the 60m hurdles as he recorded a personal best time of 8.34s in the preliminary round to win his heat and qualify for the final with the second-fastest time in the field. James will be joined in the final race by fellow freshman Bryce Joshlin, who posted a time of 8.74s to grab the sixth-fastest time in the competition.
• In the women's 800m run, redshirt senior Ashten Loeks had a strong outing as she finished second overall with a time of 2:18.38. After the altitude and track-size conversion, Loeks time of 2:15.57 sits just over one second away from the NCAA provisional qualifying standard for the event.
• Freshman Phia Edwards also made a strong improvement in the women's pole vault on Friday, clearing a collegiate best bar height of 3.42m after earning a mark of 3.11m in her season debut last weekend.

BEYOND THE RESULTS

• Bloomquist's personal best mark in the women's long jump moves her into second place all-time in the record book for the event, trailing only her former teammate, Hannah Meek, who recorded a jump of 6.37m nearly two years agon on Dec. 10, 2021. Moore's personal best long jump performance also moved her into the top-five in program history for the event as she now ranks fifth all-time.
• In addition to Hard's school record in the men's weight throw, sophomore Michael Roberts also recorded a personal best in the event by nearly two meters with a toss of 16.27m, which moves him into fourth place all-time in program history.
• James' personal best raw time of 8.34s in the men's 60m hurdles ranks fifth all-time in program history for the event.
• A pair of Mountain Lion Fieldhouse facility records also fell on Friday, with Colorado's Avery McMullen breaking the facility record for the women's 60m hurdles with her time of 8.25s and Colorado Christian's Josh Pierantoni taking the record for the men's 3,000m with a time of 8:21.33.

UP NEXT

• The Colorado Running Company Pre-Holiday Invite & Multi will continue tomorrow with day two action set to begin at 10 a.m. from the Mountain Lion Fieldhouse.

 
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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 14 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.