MARYVILLE, Mo.— On the opening day of the season, members of the Colorado Mesa University indoor track and field teams accumulated five school-records, seven NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying marks, five event wins and ten more runner-up finishes during the Mel Tjeerdsma Classic on Saturday here at Northwest Missouri State University's Hughes Center.
 
Elijah Williams epitomized the fast start as he broke his own school-record in the 60 meters on two separate occasions before coming back to set both a CMU and meet record in the 200 meters.  He then anchored the Mavericks' 4x400-meter relay to another school-record time.
 
Elsewhere, Justin Thompson also broke a long-standing Maverick mark while winning the long jump while Hayden Riley broke his own CMU record in the shot put.

Meanwhile, Gunner Rigsby set a NCAA qualifying leap in the triple jump to lead a 1-2-3 Maverick sweep ahead of Spencer Purnell and Zace Buckhold as freshman Sterling Brassfield joined Williams as a NCAA provisional qualifier and now No. 2 ranked Maverick of all-time in the 60-meter dash.
 
The Maverick women's 4x400-meter relay team of Jade Wimmer, Sierra Arceneaux, Sophie Lindauer and Jordyn Pittman also finished second in a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:52.33.
 
Becker Ell and Chain DeLoach were also winners for the Mavs, taking the wins in the men's pole vault and women's long jump, respectively.
 
In the men's 60-meter preliminaries, Williams (6.84) and Brassfield (6.87) reached the finals and then took second and third in that final.  Williams ran to a time of 6.77 seconds, well under his former Maverick record of 6.85 coming into the day.  Brassfield finished in 6.86.
 
In the 200, Williams posted a NCAA qualifying time of 21.48 seconds, taking down CMU's oldest indoor school-record, which had been set by Jordan Riggins back in 2013.  Williams' time also bested the 2019 meet record of 21.57, which had been set by Lincoln's Carlson Hosten.  Brassfield finished fifth and now ranks fourth in school-history at 22.28 while another Maverick freshman in Quintin Hartel finished eighth to rank eight in CMU history at 22.52.
 
Williams then teamed with Kelsey Montague, Casey McDaniel and Austin Reese for a second-place time of 3:19.59 in the 4x400-meter relay, a time that bettered the former Maverick standard of 3:20.96, which had been set at the 2019 RMAC Championships.
 
In the field, Thompson's long jump effort of 7.40 meters (24 feet, 3 ½ inches) broke Vernon Jackson's nearly 5-year old school-record of 7.19 meters (23-7.25).  Buckhold finished third at 6.82 meters (22-4.5) and now ranks ninth in program history.
 
Rigsby, competing in his first indoor meet as a Maverick, now ranks second behind Thompson in school-history with his winning triple jump effort of 14.71 meters (48-3.25).   Purnell, who joined Rigsby as an all-American during the 2021 outdoor season, took second on Saturday with a mark of 14.16 meters (46-5.5).  Buckhold posted a performance of 13.52 meters (44-4.25) and now ranks eighth in CMU lore.
 
Meanwhile, Riley's  shot put performance of 16.46 meters (54-0) was nearly a foot better than his previous PR and school-record of 15.93 meters (52-3.25).  He also finished fourth in the weight throw with a heave of 16.95 meters (55-7.5) to move up six spots to fourth on the Mavs' all-time performer chart in that discipline.  Jameson Moore also put his name on the top-10 list, ranking ninth with a ninth-place effort of 15.34 meters (50-4).
 
Elsewhere, Montague solidified his No. 5 position on the Mavs' charts in the 400 meters with a fifth place time of 50.43 seconds while McDaniel moved up a spot to sixth in CMU history with a sixth place time of 50.83 seconds.  Meanwhile, Reese finished eighth in 50.88 and ranks seventh in program history.  Freshman Dayne Ortega also put himself on the top-10 list with a tenth place time of 51.18.
 
Ell also surged into a tie for third on the Maverick all-time performers list with his winning pole vault clearance of 4.62 meters (15-1.75).  Fellow high school state champion Garrett Searls took second after getting over 4.17 meters (13-8.25).
 
DeLoach, CMU's lone representative in the women's triple jump, turned in a mark of 11.30 meters (37-1) to claim victory.
 
In other women's events, Shaya Chenoweth took second in the 60-meter finals with a time of 7.76 seconds.  She had finished the preliminaries in 7.70 seconds, a time that moves her up a spot to sixth in Maverick history.  Rachel Crutcher also made the finals, finishing fifth in 7.83 seconds after qualifying in a slightly quicker 7.81.
 
Chenoweth also took second in the long jump with a mark of 5.54 meters (18-2.25).
 
In the 200, Arceneaux finished second in 25.21 seconds while Lindauer and Crutcher tied for ninth at 22.94 seconds.  Lindauer now ranks seventh in program-history while Crutcher sits third with a PR of 24.83.
 
Averie Griffith also moved into the program's top-10 (9^th) in the 60-meter hurdles as she finished fifth with a finals time of 9.18 seconds.
 
In the high jump, Lindauer and Josie Coffey both cleared 1.60 meters (5-3).  Lindauer took second while Coffey finished third after missing on her first two attempts at that height.
 
The Mavericks will continue their season next Saturday at the Western Colorado Open in Gunnison, Colorado.