GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University athletes, including two competing unattached, won four events and set eight new program top-10 marks as the Mavericks opened their 2021 outdoor season and their new on-campus track and field complex while taking the early team leads in the Maverick Open on Friday.
Both CMU teams were competing outdoors for the first time since 2019 after COVID wiped out the entire 2020 outdoor campaign.
The Maverick men received event wins from
Hayden Riley in the discus throw and
Jerod Kuhn in the 5,000 meters to score 24 team points, five more than Western Colorado. The Maverick women also scored 24 points in the three events contested Friday and lead WCU by eight. Westminster is third with 14 heading into Saturday's action.
CMU women's student-athletes Kaley Paterson and
Kira MacGill, both of whom were competing unattached, won the javelin throw and 5,000 meters, respectively. WCU's Keli Drye won the women's discus while Luke Wuesthoff took the men's javelin, which featured four Mountaineer throwers.
All six winners throughout the afternoon established facility records.
In the men's 5K, Kuhn was paced through the opening laps by former Maverick standouts
Shane Niksic and
John Cusick before going out on his own to win in 15 minutes, 9.13 seconds, becoming the third fastest Maverick in program history. Freshman
Triston Charles (15:15.93) and
Ethan Abbs (15:20.10) took second and third while putting themselves in to the No. 4 and 5 spots in CMU history.
Ian Cropp (15:44.20) and
Peter Martin (15:45.53) also moved into the No. 8 and 10 spots in program history while
Nathan Sanches just missed out on a spot in the all-time top ten, taking sixth place in 15:46.50.
Meanwhile in the discus,
Hayden Riley came from behind to take the win as he posted a final round throw of 45.79 meters (150 feet, 2 inches) after posting a fifth-round mark of 45.54 meters. He had taken over the lead from teammate
Brock Murphy, who led through four rounds with a opening-round heave of 44.14 meters (144-10). Both marks are new personal-bests and put them fifth and eighth in Maverick history.
Action had started with the men's javelin, which Wuesthoff won with a mark of 46.91 meters before a 30-plus minute lightning delay. After the delay, eight women contested the women's javelin. Paterson took the win with a throw of 33.10 meters (108-7), which if she would have been competing for the Maverick team, would have ranked her seventh in program history.
Mica Jenrette, hot off an all-America indoor pentathlon performance, took second as the top team-scorer with a throw of 29.29 meters (96-1). CMU freshman
Josie Coffey, the RMAC's indoor high jump champion, was fifth at 25.66 meters (87-5) in her javelin throwing debut.
In the women's discus throw, CMU freshman
Meleeah Holmes-McKown took second with a final round mark of 38.06 meters (124-10), moving into the No. 4 spot in program history. Drye took the win by a meter at 39.06 meters (128-2).
Minutes earlier in the women's, 5K, MacGill the 2020 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Cross Country Freshman of the Year claimed the win in 17:49.55, surging ahead for a 10-second win over Westminster's Hannah Rohrer-Fitzhugh, who had led for several laps with MacGill running just behind.
If she had been running for the team, MacGill's time would have put her third in program history.
The other three Mavericks in the race finished third, fourth and fifth as each made their collegiate track debuts.
Ella Rosenkranz was clocked in 19:12.43 to take third.
Taylor Kincaid was fourth in 20:59.89 while her sister Arianna was fifth in 21:12.07.
Saturday's action will begin with the men's hammer throw at 10 a.m. The running events begin at 2 p.m. with the women's 4x100-meter relay, with action slated to wrap up before 6 p.m.
