AZUSA, Calif. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs track & field team closed the third and final day of the Bryan Clay Invitational on Saturday with five more NCAA provisional qualifying marks, including three that registered as new or improved marks for the 2023 outdoor season.
 
INSIDE THE BRYAN CLAY INVITATIONAL
Location: APU Cougar Athletic Stadium | Azusa, Calif.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Junior Melissa Moreni was the first Mountain Lion in action on Saturday as she posted a time of 13.87s in the women's 100m hurdle race to finish seventh overall in the field of 70 runners. Moreni's time registers as a national qualifying mark, however, it sits just shy of her season best qualifying mark of 13.72c.
• Next up on the track was redshirt junior Dillon Andrews, who raced to an improved provisional qualifying time of 53.13s in the men's 400m hurdles for a 12^th place finish out of 49 competitors.
• UCCS had a pair of runners in the women's 1500m invite, but it was junior Kate Hedlund that stole the show for a second straight day as she clocked a personal best and national qualifying time of 4:22.83. Hedlund's time registers as an improvement on her previous provisional mark for the event that she set earlier in the season and will likely have her ranked inside the top-five for the event at the close of the weekend. After racing to a provisional mark in the women's 5K last night, Anna Fauske was also in competition in the women's 1500m invite as she went on to post a personal best time of 4:37.58.
• In the men's 1500m invite, redshirt senior Evan Graff made his outdoor debut for the event and did not disappoint as he recorded an NCAA qualifying time of 3:45.40. Graff's time came up just .22s shy of his personal best and school record time of 3:45.18 that he established at last season's Bryan Clay Invitational.
• Redshirt freshman Jagger Zlotoff closed out the evening in the men's 1500m open, finishing second in his heat with a national qualifying time of 3:47.02. Zlotoff's time sits just less than one second off his season best converted mark of 3:46.15 that entered the weekend ranked seventh in the nation.

BEYOND THE RESULTS

• Hedlund's 1500m time of 4:22.83 ranks second all-time in UCCS program history, trailing only teammate Riley McGrath's school record time of 4:21.57.
• Zlotoff also moved to third all-time in program history for the men's 1500m with his time of 3:47.02.

UP NEXT

• The Mountain Lions have their final competition prior to the 2023 RMAC Outdoor Championships next week as they head north to Golden, Colo., for the Colorado School of Mines Pre-Conference Invite on April 21-22.

 
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.