NEW ORLEANS, La. – After posting strong performances in a pair of last chance meets over the weekend, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's track & field team climbed four spots in the Week 7 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Outdoor Track & Field Rating Index, coming in with a No. 18 ranking and 65.38 TFRI points.
 
Pittsburg State University's men's team maintains their hold on the No. 1 national ranking for a fourth consecutive week with 259.30 TFRI points, while West Texas A&M University's men's team claims the No. 2 spot for the second straight week with 214.85 TFRI points.
 
The UCCS men's team added a pair of improved national qualifying marks over the weekend at the CSU Pueblo Last Chance Invite as Jagger Zlotoff and Evan Graff each raced to season best times in the 1500m. The Mountain Lion men have totaled 22 NCAA provisional qualifying marks for the outdoor season, including five that rank inside the top-ten for their respective event.

• Dakota Abbott: Triple Jump – 15.62m (2nd RMAC/7th DII)
• Dillon Andrews: 400m Hurdles – 53.13s (3rd RMAC/41st DII)
• Peterson Bohannon: Long Jump – 7.28m (9th RMAC/T50th DII)
• Sawyer Christopher: Javelin Throw – 60.73m (2nd RMAC/27th DII)
• Skye Ciccarelli: High Jump – 2.10m (2nd RMAC/T19th DII)
• Evan Graff: 1500m – 3:44.04 (4th RMAC/6th DII)
• Evan Graff: 5000m – 14:06.51 (17th RMAC/24th DII)
• Marcus Graham: 10000m – 29:26.98 (13th RMAC/19th DII)
• Grant Haskins: Long Jump – 7.32m (T7th RMAC/T46th DII)
• Thorben Hast: Decathlon – 7,090 Points (2nd RMAC/9th DII)
• Angel Laca: 400m – 47.78s* (3rd RMAC/53rd DII)
• Justyn Loper: Hammer Throw – 56.87m (4th RMAC/39th DII)
• Justice Mendoza: 100m – 10.37s* (1st RMAC/T27th DII)
• Justice Mendoza: 200m – 20.93s* (1st RMAC/19th DII)
• Brian Mosley Jr.: 100m – 10.48s* (2nd RMAC/T57th DII)
• Richard Safoh: Long Jump – 7.38m (5th RMAC/T33rd DII)
• Peyton Turnage: Long Jump – 7.45m (2nd RMAC/T20th DII)
• Daryon Wilson: Long Jump – 7.43m (3rd RMAC/T22nd DII)
• Afewerki Zeru: 5000m – 13:51.47 (6th RMAC/8th DII)
• Afewerki Zeru: 10000m – 29:32.59 (14th RMAC/20th DII)
• Jagger Zlotoff: 1500m – 3:43.32* (3rd RMAC/4th DII)
• Men's 4x100m: 40.31s* (1st RMAC/T17th DII)

*Converted for altitude
 
In the seventh release of the USTFCCCA South Central Regional Rankings, the Mountain Lion women's team maintained their grip on the No. 4 position in the region with 536.73 TFRI points, while the UCCS men's team dropped two spots for the No. 5 ranking in the region with 584.58 TFRI points. For the fifth straight week, West Texas A&M continued their stranglehold on the No. 1 spots in both the men's and women's regional rankings, with their women's team collecting 1,079.27 TFRI points and their men's team securing 871.16 TFRI points.
 
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)
5/2:       MEN: #22 (#3 South Central Region)
             WOMEN: NR (#4 South Central Region)
5/9:       MEN: #18 (#5 South Central Region)
             WOMEN: NR (#4 South Central Region)
 
UCCS also has seven event groups ranked among the top-ten in the nation in the sixth edition of the 2023 Outdoor Track & Field Event Squad Rankings that were released on Monday, May 8. The UCCS men's triple jump event group consisting of Dakota Abbott, Peyton Turnage, Richard Safoh, and Peterson Bohannon leads the way as the No. 2 ranked squad for their event at an average of 14.48m, while the men's long jump (No. 4) and women's 3,000m steeplechase (No. 4) also rank inside the top-five for their event groups.
 
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)
Women's 3000m Steeplechase: 4th – 11:18.26 Avg. (Rachel Richtman, Molly Breuer, Brooke Moss, Nadine Almasri)
Men's Long Jump: 4th – 7.40m Avg. (Peyton Turnage, Daryon Wilson, Richard Safoh, Grant Haskins)
Men's Javelin Throw: 8th – 55.81m Avg. (Sawyer Christopher, Seth Richmond, Joseph Hamilton, Thorben Hast)
Women's 100m Hurdles: 9th - 14.64s Avg. (Melissa Moreni, Maggie Remsberg, Faith Novess, Skylar Hawk)
Men's 10000m: 10th – 30:34.61 Avg. (Marcus Graham, Afewerki Zeru, Logan Cole, Will Young)
Women's Long Jump: 10th – 5.63m Avg. (Audrey Bloomquist, Christine Bailey, Faith Novess, Maggie Remsberg)
 
The Mountain Lions are set to compete in two more last chance meets prior to the end of the outdoor qualifying period as they will have a select few distance runners heading to Azusa, Calif., for the APU Franson Last Chance on May 12-13 before the remainder of the squad travels to Canyon, Texas, for the WT Last Chance on May 14.
 
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