COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The selected participant field for the 2025 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships was announced on Tuesday afternoon with a total of 14 student-athletes from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs track & field program being chosen to compete across nine individual entries and two relay entries at the indoor national championship meet on March 13-15 in Indianapolis, Ind.  
 
The NCAA unveiled a new selection process for the 2024-25 indoor season with a defined participant field in which the national committee selected the top 18 student-athletes in individual events, top 16 in combined events, and top 12 relay groups to compete at the national championship meet
 
The No. 11 nationally ranked UCCS men's track & field team will have seven student-athletes competing at the national meet across a total of six individual entries and one relay entry.

• Sophomore Ashton Whisler will make his first career appearance at the indoor national meet as the No. 16 seed in the men's 400m dash with a season-best converted time of 47.34s. Whisler will toe the line in the preliminary round of the 400m at 3:55 p.m. (MT) on Thursday, March 13.
• Redshirt junior Jagger Zlotoff is set for his third consecutive appearance in the men's mile at the indoor national championship meet as he enters the competition holding the eighth-fastest seed time in the field at 4:00.62. The preliminary round of the men's mile will start at 3:15 p.m. (MT) on Thursday, March 13.
• For the first time since the 2022-23 indoor season, the UCCS men's team qualified their distance medley relay team for the indoor national meet and will enter the competition as the No. 12 seed in the field with a season-best adjusted time of 9:42.37. The Mountain Lions will deploy sophomore Brett Davis for the 1200m leg, junior Sebastien Jean for the 400m leg, and redshirt junior Joseph Hamilton on the 800m leg while Zlotoff will take care of the mile leg. Redshirt sophomore Joseph Impellitteri will travel with the team as an alternate for the men's DMR, which will kick off at 4 p.m. on Friday, March 14.
• In his first and only season with the Mountain Lions, graduate senior Caiden Macktinger will make his way to the indoor national meet as a qualifier in the men's pole vault with his season-best bar clearance of 5.32m. Macktinger, who enters the competition as the fifth-seeded vaulter, will hit the runway at 12:35 p.m. (MT) on Saturday, March 15.
• For a second consecutive indoor season, redshirt senior Richard Safoh qualified for the indoor national championship as a top five seed in the men's long jump as he holds the third-best jump in this year's field at 7.58m. Safoh will spring into action at 10 a.m. (MT) on Friday, March 14.
• Senior Luke Hard is set for his first career appearance at the indoor national meet as the No. 10 seed in the men's weight throw after posting a season-best mark of 20.01m. The men's weight throw competition will begin at 1:30 p.m. (MT) on Friday, March 14.
• Redshirt senior Thorben Hast rounds out the qualifying field for the Mountain Lions as he makes his second career appearance at indoor nationals in the men's heptathlon with a season-best score of 5,287 to hold down the No. 8 seed in the competition. Hast will compete in the first four events of the heptathlon starting at 9 a.m. (MT) on Thursday, March 13 before wrapping up the final three events on Friday, March 14 beginning at 9:20 a.m.

On the women's side, the No. 12 nationally ranked Mountain Lions are set to have five student-athletes in action across three individual entries and one relay entry.

• Redshirt senior Kate Hedlund is set to compete in the women's mile at the indoor national championship meet for the fourth consecutive season and will enter the competition as one of the favorites to win the event as she holds the third-fastest time overall in the field at 4:40.53, which sits less than seven-tenths of a second off the top seed. The preliminary round of the women's mile race will start at 2:55 p.m. (MT) on Thursday, March 13.
• Senior Anna Fauske will have a busy weekend ahead of her as she qualified for indoor nationals as the No. 5 seed in both the 3,000m (9:18.96c) and 5,000m (16:15.34) races. Fauske will open the meet on Thursday, March 13 at 4:15 p.m. (MT) in the women's 5,000m final before competing in the women's 3,000m final at 2:40 p.m. (MT) on Saturday, March 15.
• For the eighth consecutive indoor season, the UCCS women's track & field team qualified their women's distance medley relay team for the indoor national championship, this time as the No. 4 seeded group in the field with a season-best time of 11:23.59. The Mountain Lions will have Hedlund returning to the track to cover the 1200m leg, and she will be joined in the relay by sophomore Krissie Sanders (400m), redshirt senior Rachel Goodrich (800m), and redshirt senior Rachel Richtman (mile) with sophomore Emma Montoya also traveling with the team as the alternate. The women's DMR race is set to begin at 3:40 p.m. (MT) on Friday, March 14.

The three-day indoor national championship meet is set to take place on March 13-15 at the Fall Creek Pavilion in Indianapolis, Ind., as part of the 2025 NCAA Division II Winter Championships Festival.
 
For everything UCCS Athletics, follow the Mountain Lions on social media and stay tuned to gomountainlions.com.
 
SOCIAL
Twitter – @GoMountainLions
Instagram – @gomountainlions
Facebook – GoMountainLions