ALAMOSA, Colo.— An NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying times from the Mavericks' distance medley relay team as well event wins from jumpers
Spencer Purnell and
Justin Thompson were the highlights of the day for the Colorado Mesa University men's indoor track and field team on Saturday here at the Adams State Grizzly Open.
The distance medley relay team of
Jerod Kuhn,
Austin Reese,
Jake Valdez and
Tony Torres, combined for a time of 10:27.62, which with the altitude and track-size adjustments converts to 10:01.06 and under the NCAA standard of 10:02.87. They finished fourth in a loaded field, which is now made up of five of the top ten teams in the country thus far. The relay time, capped by Torres' mile split of 4:19.61, the fastest in the field, is also fifth quickest in Maverick history.
Meanwhile, Purnell won the long jump for the second straight day, jumping 6.54 meters (21-5.5) after winning the same event on Friday. Thompson also won for the second consecutive day, clearing 1.93 meters (6-4) in the high jump on Saturday.
Elsewhere, In-form sprinter
Elijah Williams finished fourth in the 200 meters, but with a quick time of 22.10 seconds, which with the conversions lowered to 21.84, to stand fourth in the RMAC. He also finished third in the 60 meters after setting the CMU record in that event on Friday at the Western Slope Challenge in Gunnison. His time of 6.88 seconds on Saturday here was four one-hundreths of a second faster at the school-record coming into the weekend.
The Mavericks also claimed nine other and 14 total top-5 finishes throughout the day and posted three other new marks on their top-10 all-time performer charts.
Those highlights included:
- Freshman Ethan Abbs finished third in the 5,000 meters, becoming just the seventh Maverick to break 16 minutes indoors in 15:57.81.
- Nate Hanson placed second in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.43 seconds and sits fourth in the RMAC with his altitude-adjusted time of 8.47. Freshman Zayden Davis finished third in 8.50 seconds.
- Freshman Beau Thornton finished fifth in that event with a time of 6.96 to take over the No. 7 spot in CMU history.
- Kelsey Montague finished second in the 400 meters with a time of 51.23 seconds.
- Triston Charles finished the 3,000 meters in 9:18.89 to take the No. 10 spot in CMU history for that distance. He finished in seventh place.
- Freshman Zace Buckhold placed third in the high jump (1.78 meters/5-10) and fourth in the long jump with a mark of 6.18 meters (20-3.5).
- A day after setting the school-record in the shot put, Hayden Riley finished fifth with a throw of 14.98 meters (49-1.75).
- Fellow thrower Brock Murphy placed second in the weight throw, launching it 16.12 meters (52-10.75).
Up Next
The Mavericks will resume their brief season next Friday and Saturday in Colorado Springs, competing at the Colorado Running Company UCCS Open.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Portions of this story were re-written after corrected results were originally distributed, affecting some of the the track-size conversions and thus the corresponding national and RMAC rrankings.
