AZUSA, Calif.— Colorado Mesa University's Tony Torres broke his own school-record in the 1,500 meters as he won the event in a field of 96 runners at the Azusa Pacific University Last Chance Twilight on Friday evening here at the Cougar Athletic Stadium.
 
Meanwhile, Justin Thompson cleared a career-best 2.12 meters (6 feet, 11 ½ inches) to lead a group of six Maverick jumpers at two heptathletes at the Colorado School of Mines Last Chance Meet closer to home in Golden, Colorado as the Maverick track and field team split their squad for a series of weekend meets to try to secure spots in the NCAA Division II National Championships later this month in Allendale, Michigan.
 
Here in California, Torres posted a time of three minutes, 44.31 seconds to win the fastest of six heats.  His time broke his school-record time of 3:46.28, set at home last month during the Maverick Open.  Torres was already safely into the national championships with his earlier altitude-adjusted time of 3:41.84, an automatic qualifying conversion that ranks him third in Division II.
 
Meanwhile, in Colorado, Thompson cleared his new PR on his second attempt at the height, which was a 1-centimeter (half-inch) improvement over his earlier career-best.  The clearance moves Thompson from a tie for 11^th to a tie for seventh on the national performance list, increasing his very good chances for selection into the national meet.
 
Thompson also had a solid long jump winning effort of 7.27 meters (23-10.25) as well.
 
Meanwhile, women's high jumper Sophie Lindauer cleared a PR 1.63 meters (5-4.25) to move into a tie for fifth in CMU history for that discipline.
 
In the long jump, Chian DeLoach set a new wind-legal career-best of 5.79 meters (19-0) in the long jump while Josie Coffey cleared 1.58 meters (5-2.25) to finish behind Lindauer in the high jump.
 
In the heptathlon, Mica Jenrette posted 2,889 points in the first four events turning in times of 15.19 and 26.10 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash, respectively.  She also had a high jump clearance of 1.59 meters (5-2.5) and a shot put mark of 10.46 meters (34-4).  Teammate Averie Griffith also made her multi debut finishing the hurdles in 15.24 seconds and running the 200 in 26.64 seconds.  She missed on all three of her attempts at the high jump and fouled on all three of her shot put attempts.
 
On the men's side, Spencer Purnell posted a mark of 6.95 meters (22-9.75) in the long jump while Gunner Rigsby posted a triple jump mark of 15.13 meters (49-7.75), one of the best in Maverick history.  He set the school-record of 15.70 meters (51-6.25) at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships nearly two weeks ago.
 
On Saturday, Jenrette and Griffith will complete the heptathlon while a dozen Mavericks will compete in the first of two Loper Twilight Meets, hosted by the University of Nebraska-Kearney.