SPEARFISH, S.D.— A winning high jump by redshirt sophomore Justin Thompson and bronze medal-winning and school-record setting efforts by Hayden Riley in the shot put and the men's distance medley relay team highlighted another strong day for the Colorado Mesa University men's indoor track and field team, which remained in third place after the second of three days of the 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships, which continued Saturday here at Black Hills State University' Donald E. Young Center Field House.
 
The Mavericks matched their day one point-scoring total of 22 and now have 44 team points through ten events, three of which they have won, something the Mavericks have never been able to do in a single conference indoor meet until this year.
 
UC-Colorado Springs leads the 11-team field with 122 points while Adams State is second with 59.  The Mavericks, who are trying to surpass their best ever team finish, sit ahead of Western Colorado (38) , Chadron State (30 ½) and the rest of the pack.  CMU finished in a tie for fourth in 2019, which is the Mavs' best RMAC indoor finish to date.
 
Thompson won the high jump by clearing 2.06 meters (6 feet, 9 inches) on his first attempt after UC-Colorado Springs' Tanner Walsh went out at that height.  Thompson then moved the bar to what would have been a personal-best clearance of 2.12 meters, but could not eclipse that height.
 
In the shot put, Riley recorded a second-throw effort of 15.93 meters (52-3.25), which allowed him to hold on to third place despite fouling his last three attempts.   His throw was nearly a foot further than his season-starting effort of 15.68 meters (51-5.5) that he had set at the Western Slope Challenge in Gunnison on Feb. 5.
 
In the distance medley relay, Jerod Kuhn, Kelsey Montague, Jake Valdez and Tony Torres combined for an improved NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying time of 10:15.08 to smash the Mavericks' former record of 10:23.67, which had been set here by now assistant coach Shane Niksic, Michael Petherick, Alex Quintana and John Cusick at the 2013 RMAC Championships.
 
Elsewhere, freshman Triston Charles (15:21.78) and Ethan Abbs (16:02.23) placed tenth and 14^th, respectively in the 5,000 meters.  Charles' time was just a quarter-second off Daniel Vavrik's 7-year old school-record of 15:21.53 and was a nearly 10-second improvement over his former career-best, set 15 days ago at UCCS.
 
In the long jump, Spencer Purnell fouled on all three of his attempts.
 
Preliminary round qualifying was also held in the 60-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash.
 
In the hurdles, sophomore Nate Hanson and Zayden Davis both successfully advanced to Sunday's final with times of 8.29 and 8.39 seconds, respectively.  Hanson's time, which was fourth quickest in the 13-man field, was a PR and moved him into a tie for third on CMU's all-time performers chart with Andy Bowles.  Davis qualified fifth with his time, just 0.02 off his best that he used to win the Colorado Running Company UCCS Open a fortnight ago.
 
Kevin Frye finished 12^th in 8.86 seconds.
 
In the 200, Ty Grant finished ninth in 22.66 seconds, again just missing out of a spot in Sunday's finals by one place.  The same happened in the 60-meter preliminaries on Friday.
 
The Maverick women also had a winner for the second straight day as freshman Josie Coffey won the high jump helping her team to move up to third.
 
Sunday's action will begin at 9 a.m.