PUEBLO, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University's Mica Jenrette took the Day 1 heptathlon lead while Sierra Arceneaux and McKenna Molder posted the top qualifying marks in the 100 and 400-meter dash preliminaries to lead the Colorado Mesa University Maverick women's track and field team at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, which got underway Friday at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl.
 
The Mavericks also had three of the top eight finishers in the long jump and qualified Averie Griffith for the 400-meter hurdles throughout early action at the 3-day meet, which continues through Sunday.
 
In the long jump, Shaya Chenoweth recorded a wind-aided, yet NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying mark of 5.87 meters (19 feet, 3 ¼ inches) to place fourth. Taeryn Trumper finished sixth with a wind-legal and NCAA mark of 5.84 meters (19-2) to move up two spots to second on CMU's all-time performers' chart.  Kierra Arceneaux also scored one of the Mavs' nine day one team points with a wind-aided leap of 5.73 meters (18-9.75).
 
Meanwhile, her twin-sister Sierra posted a fine time of 11.59 to qualify for Sunday's 100-meter final first. 
 
Molder did the same in the 400, running to a time of 57.31 seconds.
 
In the heptathlon, Jenrette ran to a career-best time of 15.09 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, highlighting her Day 1 point total of 2,867 points, which leads the rest of the field by 130.
 
Teammate Sophie Lindauer is in third with 2,534 points while Jordan Brockman is fifth with 2,517.  Freshman Hope Matteson is sixth with 2,420.  Lindauer had season-best marks of 17.76 seconds in the hurdles and 1.59 meters (5-2.5) in the high jump, the latter of which was equal to best in the field.  She also won the 200-meter portion of the competition in 25.93 seconds.
 
Elsewhere, Averie Griffith qualified ninth for the 400-meter hurdle finals in 1:07.07 while teammate Lexie Williams was just one place behind in 1:07.27, a time that ranks her ninth in program history.

Kira MacGill finished 16^th in the 1,500 meter preliminaries in 4:53.58 while Lindauer took tenth in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 58.26.  Freshman Jordan Burnett finished 17^th in that event, running to a time of 1:00.25 in her conference championship debut.
 
In the 100 meter prelims, Victoria Eversley turned in a season-best time of 12.43 to finish 11^th while Serenity Burnett-Perry placed 14^th in 12.73 seconds.
 
In the hammer throw, sophomore Meleeah Holmes-McKown placed 11^th with a career-best mark of 45.62 meters (149-8).  Heather Yackey finished 21^st with a throw of 38.17 meters (125-3).
 
The pole vault competition was postponed until Sunday due to high winds.
 
With three of the 21 total events in the books, the Mavericks are in a fifth place tie in the team standings.