GUNNISON, Colo.— Gunner Rigsby blasted past his own fieldhouse and school records in the triple jump while
Dawson Heide set a 60-meter hurdle school record and two of the Mavericks' seven NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying marks to highlight a strong day of performances for the Colorado Mesa University men's indoor track & field team at the Mountaineer Open & Multi, their season-opening meet on Saturday here at Western Colorado University's Mountaineer Field House.
Rigsby, a returning all-American and the defending Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Champion, recorded a mark of 16.17 meters (53 feet, 0 ¾ inches) to break his own school record of 15.93 meters (52-3.25) and facility mark of 15.91 meters (52-2.5) and could lead the NCAA Division II performers' list by a wide margin.
Teammate
Spencer Purnell also turned in an NCAA provisional and indoor personal-best mark of 15.09 meters (49-6.25) to finish second and rank as high as fourth on the national list pending other weekend results from around the country.
Meanwhile, Heide began the day by breaking the school-record in the 60-meter hurdles with a NCAA qualifying time of 8.05 seconds to begin the second day of competition in the heptathlon. He also cleared a PR height of 4.50 meters (14-9) in the pole vault and went on to set a personal-best and facility-record score of 5,456 points after finishing the 1,000 meters in 3:10.99, just behind freshman teammate
Logan Hafey, who finished in 3:10.74 to cap a score of 4,016 points.
Heide won the other six disciplines and won the overall event by an incredible 1,502 points while setting five new personal records and three NCAA provisional qualifying marks (long jump on Friday) during the weekend.
The Mavs won four events throughout the day while claiming second in eight as
Zace Buckhold and
Eddie Kurjak tied for the high jump win after both cleared 2.00 meters (6-6.75) while
Dayne Ortega led a 1-2-4 finish in the 400 meters with a time of 50.10 seconds.
The Mavs' also received NCAA provisional qualifying marks from
Justin Thompson in the long jump,
Hayden Riley in the shot put and from
Zayden Davis in the 60-meter hurdles, all of whom finished second. Riley recorded a mark of 16.37 meters (53-8.5) and also took second in the weight throw with a heave of 16.65 meters (54-7.5) earlier in the day.
Davis was clocked in 8.13 seconds (8.17-altitude adjusted) while Thompson turned in a mark of 7.27 meters (23-10.25).
Other Mavericks highlights included:
- Kade Christensen, Joey Zook and Teo Casados all moved up or into the Mavs' top 10 lists in the 60 meters. Christensen finished in second place with a time of 6.86 seconds to rank fourth in program history while Casados finished third in 6.88 seconds to rank fifth. Zook is now tied for ninth with a preliminary round time of 6.93 seconds. He finished seventh in the finals while Sterling Brassfield placed sixth at 6.95.
- Christensen also finished third in the 200 meters with a time of 22.79 seconds.
- AJ Smallwood was second to Ortega in the 400 meters, running an indoor PR of 50.43 to rank second in program history. Freshman Julio Antondo-Avalos finished fourth in the 50.76 seconds and now ranks eighth in CMU history.
- The Mavs' 4x400 relay quartet of Ortega, Kelsey Montague, Smallwood and Justin Blanton took second with a time of 3:23.30, sixth fastest in Maverick lore.
- Becker Ell took third in the pole vault with a mark of 4.30 meters (14-1.25)
- In addition to his share of the high jump win, Buckhold set a PR of 14.22 meters (46-8) to finish fourth in the triple jump. He was also fourth in the long jump with a solid mark of 6.91 meters (22-8).
- After missing most of the cross country season due to injury, Nathan Sanches took seventh in the 5K with a time of 16:31.87.
