COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs track & field team closed the second and final day of the Colorado Running Company Pre-Holiday Invite & Multi on Saturday with another strong outing in which they recorded five event wins and five NCAA provisional qualifying marks.
 
INSIDE THE COLORADO RUNNING COMPANY PRE-HOLIDAY INVITE & MULTI
Location: Mountain Lion Fieldhouse | Colorado Springs, Colo.
Track Size: 200-meters (flat)
Elevation: 6,291 ft
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The men's heptathletes opened day two action on Saturday with three events remaining after beginning the combined event yesterday. Redshirt senior Thorben Hast had a strong finish to his heptathlon as he moved up four spots to finish fifth overall with a score of 5,262 points that was just 13 points shy of his personal best for the event. Junior Broden Cahoon and sophomore Evan Atkin also posted strong finishes as they both moved into the top five in program history for the heptathlon with Cahoon finishing 11^th overall with 4,730 points and Atkin taking 12^th place with 4,703 points. After the conversions for altitude and track size, both Hast and Cahoon surpassed the NCAA provisional qualifying threshold with Hast's mark being adjusted to 5,287 and Cahoon's being adjusted to 4,754.
• Freshman Realiti Smith recorded the first NCAA provisional qualifying mark of his collegiate career in the men's triple jump as he finished fourth overall in the event with a personal best of 14.56m. Junior KJ McInnis also competed in the triple jump for the first time this season and put together a personal best effort as he leapt to a mark of 14.21m to take sixth place.
• Sophomore Krissie Sanders earned a second-place finish in the women's 60m hurdles final race as she matched her personal best in the event with an NCAA provisional qualifying converted time of 8.81s. Junior Abigail Frey also posted a strong finish, claiming fifth place overall with a converted time of 9.12s.
• The Mountain Lions closed the meet with one additional NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the men's 4x400m as Nigel James, Peyton Nelson, Ashton Whisler, and Sebastien Jean combined to post a first-place finish with a converted time of 3:15.68 in their first relay of the season. The women's 4x400m relay team of Abigail Frey, Gigi Douillard, Alyssa Lopez, and Krissie Sanders also notched a first-place finish in their relay as they raced to a converted time of 3:57.24.
• Junior Kseniya Nikanorov put forth a strong effort in the women's 5,000m as she finished first overall in a field of three student-athletes with a converted time of 17:27.44.
• The Mountain Lions had five student-athletes competing in the final round of the women's 60m dash and it was senior Victoria Farinas that brought home the event win as she clocked a converted time of 7.66s. Sophomore Danaya Kinnard secured a second-place finish in the event at a converted time of 7.79s, while sophomore Taryn Fettig finished fourth at 7.85c, redshirt junior Madissyn Moore took fifth place at 7.94c, and sophomore Zane Bullock claimed seventh place at 7.97c.
• Kinnard returned to the track later in the afternoon in the women's 200m and went on to win the event as she clocked a personal best converted time of 25.25s.
• In the final race of the men's 60m hurdles, sophomore Nigel James collected a runner-up finish with a converted time of 8.18s while sophomore Bryce Joshlin took eighth place at a converted time of 9.07s.
• Sophomore Gunnar Betts was the lone UCCS student-athlete racing in the final round of the men's 60m dash and he put on a strong showing as he clocked a personal best converted time of 6.96s to take second place in the event.
• In the men's 200m, a pair of sophomores led the way for UCCS with Luke Trinrud taking fourth place with a converted time of 22.81s and Gunnar Betts finishing in sixth place with a converted time of 22.99s.
• At the men's high jump, McInnis finished in fourth place with a season-best mark of 2.03m. On the women's side, sophomore Dallis Robinson finished in a tie for sixth place in the event with a season-best mark of 1.57m.
• Junior Kyle Demos paced the Mountain Lions in the men's shot put with a fifth-place mark of 15.84m while junior Kane Fobare improved his personal best in the event by more than half of a meter to finish in sixth place with a toss of 14.85m.
• A pair of Mountain Lions finished inside the top 10 in the women's triple jump, led by sophomore Brielle Bracken in fifth place with a leap of 11.28m. She was followed closely in the standings by redshirt junior Chelsea Howard, who claimed sixth place with a jump of 11.25m.
• Redshirt sophomore TJ Saglembeni was the top finisher for the Mountain Lions in the men's mile as he posted a converted time of 4:24.32. Redshirt freshman Kyle Briggs also made his first collegiate appearance in the event, finishing sixth overall with a converted time of 4:29.08.

BEYOND THE RESULTS

• The top five list for the men's heptathlon saw multiple updates this weekend as Broden Cahoon moved to fourth all-time and Evan Atkin moved into fifth all-time for the event.
• After the first two weeks of competition, the Mountain Lions have recorded a total of 17 NCAA provisional qualifying marks, including 13 on the men's side and four on the women's side.

UP NEXT

• The Mountain Lions will step away from the track for about a month for finals and winter break before returning to competition at University of Colorado Boulder's Colorado Classic on Jan. 17-18 in Boulder, Colo.

SOCIAL
Twitter – @GoMountainLions 
Instagram – @gomountainlions
Facebook – GoMountainLions 
 
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.