SPEARFISH, S.D.— Brock Murphy and
Tony Torres each won events as the Colorado Mesa University men's track and field team got off to an impressive start at the 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Indoor Championships on Friday here in Black Hills State University's Donald E. Young Center Field House.
Murphy won the weight throw with a heave of 16.97 meters (55 feet, 8 ¼ inches) on his fifth attempt while Torres claimed the mile in four minutes, 10.91 seconds edging Adams State's David Cardenas, a Grand Junction Central High School product, by three tenths of a second. Torres is the first Maverick runner to ever win a RMAC indoor title joining five field athletes, who had won a combined six conference titles in the program's history.
Torres' time was also a nearly 5-second personal best and moved him ever closer to school-record holder
John Cusick, who posted a time of 4:09.33 at the 2016 NCAA Division II Championships in Pittsburg, Kansas. It will also move him up on the national performance list and perhaps into the NCAA Division II Championship field, which will be announced next week.
Jerod Kuhn also finished seventh in Friday's event with a time of 4:19.70 to move into the No. 3 position in program history while giving the Mavericks their other two team points on the 22-point day that puts CMU in third place through four events and just 10 behind UCCS, which leads the pack with 32. Adams State is second with 25.
The Mavericks also qualified a runner for the finals in both the 60 and 400 meters as freshman
Kelsey Montague qualified seventh in the 400 with a preliminary round time of 51.18 seconds before
Beau Thornton also qualified seventh in the 60 with a time of 6.97 seconds.
Ty Grant just missed out on the finals, finishing ninth in 7.02 seconds.
In other events,
Jake Valdez took ninth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:59.31 as he took over the No. 9 spot in CMU history.
Hayden Riley also finished tenth in the weight throw with a mark of 14.77 meters (48-5.5) on his only legal throw.
The Maverick women also had an event winner in pentathlete Mica Jenrette, who along with Meleeah Holmes-McKown set school-records on Friday.
