GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Nearly seven weeks after last competing, the Colorado Mesa University track and field teams will resume their 2021-22 indoor seasons in the same venue as they return to Gunnison and the Mountaineer Field House for this weekend's Mountaineer Open and Multi hosted by Western Colorado University.
 
An overwhelming majority of the meet will be contested on Saturday, beginning at 11 a.m.  However, action will begin on Friday afternoon with the women's pentathlon and the first four events of the men's heptathlon, which will get underway at 2 p.m.
 
The Mavericks have entered four women and one man in the multi events on Friday and have a large contingent of 77 entered for the meet as a whole.
 
Fans are permitted to attend the meet but must wear a mask regardless of vaccination status under Western's current COVID health protocols.
 
CMU will join host Western Colorado, a partial Adams State team, Trinidad State Junior College and possibly CSU Pueblo at the meet.
 
Action on Saturday is slated to run past 4 o'clock as the men's 4x400-meter relay is slated to go off at that time.  A complete meet schedule can be seen at the link above.

UPDATE: A live stream of the meet can be seen on the RMAC Network.
 
A live result link is tentative and fans should check WCU's website for further updates.
 
Last Time Out
 
In their last outing back on Dec. 11, 2021 at the Western Colorado Open in Gunnison, the Mavericks combined to win eight events and set nine NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying marks. 
 
Gunner Rigsby highlighted both lists as he set the program record in the men's triple jump with a mark of 15.27 meters (50 feet, 1 ¼ inch) to take over the NCAA Division II lead at the time going on to win RMAC Men's Field Athlete of the Week honors.
 
He was joined in the winner's circle by freshman Sterling Brassfield in the men's 60 meters, Elijah Williams in the 200 meters, pentathlon all-American Mica Jenrette and women's sprinters Sierra Arceneaux and Sophie Lindauer, who led 1-2-3 Maverick sweeps in the women's 60 and 400-meter dashes, respectively. 
 
Kiana Jackson, who won the women's triple jump with NCAA provisional qualifying leap of 12.09 meters (39-8), and Averie Griffith, who took the 60-meter hurdles in a career-best time of 9.12 seconds, were also victorious for the Maverick women.
 
Brassfield won the 60 meters in 6.82 seconds after setting an even quicker and improved NCAA championship provisional qualifying time of 6.80 seconds in the preliminaries.
 
Record-Setting Start
 
With Rigsby's record, the Maverick men have already set six new school record in the first two weeks of the season in December.
 
In the season-opening Mel Tjeerdsma Classic at Northwest Missouri State on Dec. 4, Elijah Williams broke his own school-record in the 60-meter dash on two different occasions running to a time of 6.84 seconds in the preliminaries before posting a runner-up time of 6.77 in finals.  Williams then took down what had been the oldest Maverick record in the 200 meters, winning that event in a meet-record time of 21.48 seconds, well under the former CMU record of 21.84, which had been set nearly nine years earlier on Jan. 24, 2013 by Jordan Riggins.
 
Williams then anchored the Mavs' to a school-record setting time of 3:19.59 in the 4x400-meter relay.
 
Meanwhile, Justin Thompson smashed the Maverick record in the indoor long jump with a winning leap of 7.40 meters (24 feet, 3 ½ inches) while Hayden Riley busted his own record in the shot put with a heave of 16.46 meters (54-0).
 
Thompson's mark was more than eight inches (21 centimeters) better than the 5-year old Maverick record of 7.19 meters (23-7.25), set by Vernon Jackson and ranks him second in the RMAC this season.
 
Riley's throw, which ranks him fifth in the RMAC, was far superior to his First Team All-RMAC honor winning mark of 15.93 meters (52-3.25) that placed him third at the 2021 RMAC Championships.
 
National Ranking
 
With those six school records and the same number of NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying marks over the first two weeks, the Maverick men have found themselves in the No. 22 spot of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division II Men's Indoor Track & Field National TFRI (Track & Field Ratings Index), released for the first time this season on Tuesday.
 
The Mavericks are the fourth Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference squad in the top 25 of the index, calculated from season-best performances, with 42.79 points.  The index is designed to be a predictor of national championship finish.
 
Adams State, UCCS and CSU Pueblo also represent the RMAC in the No. 7-9 spots of the national rankings, respectively.
 
The Maverick women are ranked 35^th in the national index.  CSU-Pueblo (5^th), Adams State (9^th) and UCCS (11^th) are representing the RMAC in the top 25.
 
Both Maverick squads are ranked seventh in the USTFCCCA's South Central Regional index, designed to be a predictor for a purely hypothetical regional championship meet.
 
Standing Strong in a revised process
 
The NCAA made a change to qualification procedures for this year's national meet and no longer has an automatic qualifying standard, only the provisional qualifying standards determined by a 5-year average of the 40^th place performer on the national performance list.
 
Thus, coaches and athletes will be regularly checking on their position on the national qualification lists, especially as the season moves into the later weeks.
 
Although it is still very early, the Mavericks have already had nine different individuals plus a relay team combined to set 11 provisional qualifying mark.  The Mavs have athletes amongst the nation's top 10 in six different disciplines.
 
A total of 540 athletes (270 men & 270 women) will be selected for the national meet with desired minimum field sizes of 16 for individual events, 14 for combined events and 12 for relays.
 
Here's a look at the current Maverick NCAA Championship provisional qualifiers by event (rank as of Wednesday and mark (altitude-adjusted if applicable) in parenthesis).
 
Men's 60 Meters- Elijah Williams (7th; 6.77); Sterling Brassfield (22nd; 6.84)
Men's 200 Meters- Williams (8^th; 21.44)
Men's Long Jump- Justin Thompson (7th; 7.40m/24-3.5)
Men's Triple Jump- Gunner Rigsby (4^th, 14.71m/48-3.25)
Men's Shot Put- Hayden Riley (25^th, 16.46m/54-0)
Women's 60 Meters- Shaya Chenoweth (23^rd, 7.67)
Women's 200 Meters- Sierra Arceneaux (16^th, 24.81)
Women's 4x400m Relay- Jade Wimmer, Sierra Arceneaux, Sophie Lindauer, Jordyn Pittman (7^th, 3:52.33)
Women's Triple Jump- Kiana Jackson (10^th, 12.09m/39-8)
Pentathlon- Mica Jenrette (11^th, 3372 points)
 
Conference Leaders
 
The Mavericks also led the RMAC performance lists in seven different events heading into this weekend.
 
Here's a look at those leaders by event
 
Men's 60 Meters- Elijah Williams (6.77)
Men's 200 Meters- Williams (21.44)
Men's Triple Jump- Gunner Rigsby (15.27m/50-1.25)
Women's 4x400m Relay- Jade Wimmer, Sierra Arceneaux, Sophie Lindauer, Jordyn Pittman (3:52.33)
Women's Pentathlon- Mica Jenrette (3372)
 
Full Coverage & Distance Debut
 
As mentioned above, the Mavericks have entered 77 (36 men, 31 men) athletes to this weekend's meet, which will by far be their largest contingent of the three meets so far this season.
 
The Maverick women are slated to cover all 17 of the women's events while the Mavericks have athletes entered in all but one of the men's events (4x400m Relay).
 
Notably, the Maverick men have entered 18 different runners in the 200 meters alone.
 
A majority of the Maverick athletes are expected to double and some could see action in three different disciplines.
 
Additionally, this weekend's meet will also be the first of the season for the Maverick distance runners who have now completed their transition from the cross country season, which ended in November. 
 
The Mavs have at least one entry in all of the events at 800 meters or longer and have two men's teams and one women's squad slated to run in the distance medley relays.
 
CMU took 36 athletes to the season-opening Mel Tjeerdsma Classic and had just short of 60 in their previous trip to Western Colorado.
 
Here is the complete list of CMU's entries by event.

Men (36 Athletes, 61 Entries)

60m (11)- Sterling Brassfield, Kade Christensen, Quentin Hartel, Carl Heide, Rese McClinton-El, Jeremiah Reed, Beau Thornton, Justin Thompson, Eliot Ward, Jeremiah Wilson, Joey Zook
200m (18)- Brassfield, Christensen, Zayden Davis, Nate Hanson, Hartel, Heide, Casey McDaniel, Kelsey Montague, Dayne Ortega, Jeremiah Otto, Reed, Austin Reese, Casey Sharpe, Thornton, Ward, Jackson Ware, Wilson, Joey Zook
400m (7)- McDaniel, Ortega, Otto, Reese, Sharpe, Ware, Elijah Williams
800m (1)- Jake Valdez
Mile (1)- Tony Torres
5,000m (4)- Ethan Abbs, Triston Charles, Nate Sanches, Mark Testa
60m Hurdles (2)- Davis, Hanson
High Jump (2)- Trey Briggs, Zace Buckhold
Pole Vault (2)- Becker Ell, Garrett Searls
Long Jump (3)- McClinton-El, Gunner Rigsby, Thompson
Triple Jump (4)- Buckhold, Montague, Purnell, Rigsby
Shot Put (2)- Jameson Moore, Hayden Riley
Weight Throw (2)- Moore, Riley
Heptathlon (1)- Dawson Heide
Distance Medley Relay (2 Teams)
 
Women (31 Athletes, 51 Entries)

60m (7)- Kierra Arceneaux, Sierra Arceneaux, Serenity Burnett-Perry, Shaya Chenoweth, Rachel Crutcher,  Victoria Eversley, Haley Golden
200m (6)- Burnett-Perry, Emma Dikken, Eversley, Golden, Averie Griffith, Reilly Hall
400m (6)- S. Arceneaux, Crutcher, Dikken, Hall, Jordyn Pittman, Lexie Williams
800m (2)- Brooke Miller, Amber Valdez
Mile (2)- Alyssa Britton, Kira MacGill
3,000m (3)- Britton, MacGill, Kendall White
5,000m (1)- Lindsay Parsons
60m Hurdles (3)- Jordan Brockman, Griffith, Kailey Paterson
High Jump (5)- Josie Coffey, Megan King, Hope Matteson, Sophie Lindauer, Maison Tolle
Pole Vault (3)- Lydia Dawson, Paige Doran, Daisy Rinehart
Long Jump (4)- K. Arceneaux, Chenoweth, Mica Jenrette, Paterson
Triple Jump (1)- Kiana Jackson
Shot Put (1)- Heather Yackey
Weight Throw (1)- Yackey
Pentathlon (4)- Brockman, Jenrette, Lindauer, Matteson
4X400m Relay (1 Team)
Distance Medley Relay (1 Team)
 
Schedule Changes
 
Head Coach Brad Gamble and his staff have made some adjustments to the rest of the remaining indoor season schedule.  The Mavs will now split their squad next weekend (Feb. 4-5) sending contingents to both the New Mexico Classic in Albuquerque and the Mines Winter Classic in Golden, Colorado.  The Mavs will then return to Albuquerque for the Don Kirby Elite Invitational on Feb. 11-12 and will compete in Gunnison for the third time at the Western Colorado Alumni Open, the final meet before the RMAC Championships, which will also be in Gunnison on Feb. 25-26.