RAPID CITY, S.D.— Redshirt seniors Nolan Ellis and D'Angelo Foster as well as true freshman Morgan Roth all won their respective events to lead the Colorado Mesa University Track & Field team to a spectacular day at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships here at the South Dakota School of Mines' O'Harra Stadium on Saturday.
Ellis won his fourth career RMAC title in the pole vault as he cleared 5.30 meters (17 feet, 4 ½ inches) to set a new championship record. Meanwhile, Morgan broke his own Maverick record in the javelin throw with a monster heave of 60.26 meters (197-8) on his final attempt to win by more than 14 feet.
Meanwhile, Foster claimed the decathlon with 6,398 points to win his second RMAC decathlon title in the last three years.
Led by those event wins, the Maverick men scored 47 team points on the second of the meet's three days and are in second place with seven events in the books.
The Mavericks scored 16 in the decathlon as freshmen AJ Crowley and Dawson Heide placed sixth and seventh with 5,691 and 5,340 points, respectively. They both set personal bests.
Sophomore Jay Shuman took eighth with 4,513.
In the pole vault, freshman Justin Sandberg placed seventh after clearing an outdoor season-best of 4.62 meters (15-1.75) to move into third in Maverick history.
The Mavericks also had two men place in the long jump as Brant Kilmon placed seventh with a leap of 6.77 meters (22-2.5) to move into fourth place on the Mavs' all-time charts while Ethan Harris jumped 6.70 meters (21-11.75) to finish eighth.
They also had two placers in the hammer throw as Marshall McKown placed fifth with a throw of 50.94 meters (167-1) while Ethen Besier placed eighth at 46.85 meters (153-8).
The Maverick women had two placers on the day as freshman Sydney Trichler took sixth in the heptathlon with a personal-best score of 4,120 points while Danielle Pickert also placed sixth in the hammer throw with a mark of 42.13 meters (138-3).
With six points, the Maverick women are in tenth place with six team points through five events.
The rest of the day was filled with preliminary heats in the shorter running events as well as finals in the both the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 10,000 meters.
In the men's 10,000, Mako Watanabe, Luke Spitz and Hunter Thompson all set new personal-bests. Watanabe finished 10th in 31:33.07 and moved up three spots to No. 3 in program history. Spitz finished 13th in 31:57.64 and now ranks fourth all-time. Thompson turned in a time of 32:38.78 to finish 21st and move up a spot to eighth in program history.
In the steeplechase, Trevor Smith turned in a personal-best time of 10:01.51 to place 11th and move up a spot to second in program history.
Meanwhile, in preliminary heats, the Mavericks advanced 16 individuals and both 4x100-meter relay teams to the finals.
The men's relay team of Spencer Purnell, Vernon Jackson, Jack Briggs and Eliot Ward qualified sixth in 42.23 seconds while the women's quartet of Sierra Arceneaux, York, Mekayla Winchester and Jill Payne won their heat while qualifying second overall in 47.01 seconds, third fastest in program history.
Tony Torres advanced to the finals in the 1,500 meters with a time of 3:59.19 while Foster (14.90), Andy Bowles (15.02) and Shuman (15.41) all advanced in the 100-meter hurdles. Meanwhile, Will Schmidt matched Foster's No. 3 time of 56.06 seconds in CMU history to advance in the 400-meter hurdles.
Ward advanced in the 100 meters with a time of 10.94 seconds while Jerod Kuhn ran the 800 in 1:55.06 to qualify as well.
On the women's side, Mekayla Winchester (14.65) McKayla Thomas (14.74) and Lyndzie Kroupa (14.96) all advanced. Kroupa's time now ranks her fourth in program history.
Jill Payne won her 400-meter preliminary heat in 57.19 seconds and qualified third while York qualified first in the 100 at 11.68 seconds, ahead of Arceneaux, who qualified fourth in 11.86 seconds. Both of those times were wind-aided.
Payne also won her 200-meter heat in 24.97 seconds and advanced to the finals in that event alongside Arceneaux (25.00) and York (25.37).
Sunday's action will begin at 8:30 a.m.
