NEW ORLEANS, La. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's and women's track & field teams garnered a pair of top-25 rankings in the Week 5 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Outdoor Track & Field Ranking Index released on Tuesday afternoon as they prepare to compete at the RMAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships this weekend.
The UCCS men's team dropped four spots from last week to claim a No. 21 national ranking with 64.84 TFRI points, while the Mountain Lion women's team slid three spots for a No. 25 national ranking with 38.65 TFRI points.
For a second consecutive week, Pittsburg State University held on to the No. 1 ranking in the nation on the men's side as they tallied 277.82 TFRI points. On the women's side, West Texas A&M University maintained their No. 1 national ranking for a third straight week with 278.86 TFRI points.
In their final weekend of competition prior to the 2023 outdoor conference championships, the Mountain Lions posted three new or improved national qualifying marks while at the Mines Mini-Meet and Fum McGraw Power Meet. UCCS heads into their outdoor conference championship meet with a total of 28 NCAA provisional qualifying marks, including six that rank inside the top-ten for their respective events on the 2023 NCAA Division II Outdoor Qualifying List.
*Converted for altitude
The Mountain Lions remained inside the top-five in the Week 5 installment of the USTFCCCA South Central Regional Rankings, with the UCCS women's team being tabbed at No. 4 with 567.25 TFRI points an the UCCS men's team coming in at No. 5 with 576.46 TFRI points. The West Texas A&M men's and women's teams held on to the top spot in the region for the third straight week, collecting 875.28 TFRI points on the men's side and 1,104.56 TFRI points on the women's side.
2023 USTFCCCA Outdoor T&F National and Regional Rankings
3/28: MEN: NR (#5 South Central Region)
WOMEN: #21 (#3 South Central Region)
4/4: MEN: #13 (#1 South Central Region)
WOMEN: NR (#3 South Central Region)
4/11: MEN: #9 (#3 South Central Region)
WOMEN: #18 (#3 South Central Region)
4/18: MEN: #17 (#4 South Central Region)
WOMEN: #22 (#3 South Central Region)
4/25: MEN: #21 (#5 South Central Region)
WOMEN: #25 (#4 South Central Region)
The Mountain Lions also had 11 event groups ranked among the top-ten in the nation in the fourth edition of the 2023 Outdoor Track & Field Event Squad Rankings that were released on Monday, April 24. The UCCS men's triple and long jump event groups both currently hold averages that sit No. 2 in the nation, while the men's javelin throw and women's 3,000m steeplechase groups also rank inside the top-five for their events.
USTFCCCA Event Squad rankings places a rank order to a program's "squad" of athletes in a particular event, using the cumulative season-best qualifying marks from a team's top-four ranked athletes on the national descending-order list. As with the national descending-order list for qualifying and seeding purposes, marks are subject to be converted due to track size and/or altitude. A team must have four or more athletes with a valid season-best mark recorded with TFRRS to achieve a ranking in a particular event.
2023 USTFCCCA Outdoor T&F Event Squad Top-10 Ranked Event Groups
Men's Triple Jump: 2nd – 14.48m Avg. (
Dakota Abbott,
Peyton Turnage,
Richard Safoh,
Peterson Bohannon)
Men's Long Jump: 2nd – 7.38m Avg. (
Peyton Turnage,
Daryon Wilson,
Richard Safoh,
Peterson Bohannon)
Women's 3000m Steeplechase: 4th – 11:24.70 Avg. (
Molly Breuer,
Rachel Richtman,
Brooke Moss,
Nadine Almasri)
Men's Javelin Throw: 5th – 55.74m Avg. (
Sawyer Christopher,
Seth Richmond,
Joseph Hamilton,
Thorben Hast)
Women's 100m: 7th – 11.95s Avg. (
Audrey Bloomquist,
Brittany Fuchs,
Keyanda Bolton,
Victoria Farinas)
Men's 200m: 7th – 21.33s Avg. (
Justice Mendoza,
Kymani Sterling,
Brian Mosley Jr.,
Mason Pastorello)
Women's 100m Hurdles: 7th - 14.70s Avg. (
Melissa Moreni,
Faith Novess,
Maggie Remsberg,
Sydney Samuels)
Men's 100m: 8th – 10.55s Avg. (
Justice Mendoza,
Brian Mosley Jr.,
Kymani Sterling,
Michael Nichols)
Women's Triple Jump: 8th – 11.37m Avg. (
Audrey Bloomquist,
Christine Bailey,
Kathryn Carroll,
Brianna Spencer)
Men's 10000m: 9th – 30:34.61 Avg. (
Marcus Graham,
Afewerki Zeru,
Logan Cole,
Will Young)
Men's 5000m: 10th – 14:27.06 Avg. (
Afewerki Zeru,
Evan Graff,
Gavin Harden,
Jack Donze)
The Mountain Lions now turn their attention to the 2023 RMAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, where the men's and women's teams will look to defend the outdoor conference title for a third consecutive year. The three-day conference championship meet is set to get underway on Friday, April 28, from Chadron State College's Nelson Physical Activity Center and will conclude on Sunday, April 30.
For everything UCCS Athletics, follow the Mountain Lions on social media and stay tuned to gomountainlions.com.
SOCIAL
Twitter – @GoMountainLions
Instagram – @gomountainlions
Facebook – GoMountainLions
