GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Getting out to a fast start at home last week, the Colorado Mesa University track and field program will take its' show on the road this week competing at the Colorado Invitational in Boulder this Friday afternoon and throughout the day Saturday.
 
The Mavericks will take a group of 58 (30 men, 28 women) athletes to the meet, their second of the outdoor season, at the University of Colorado's Potts Field.  Live results can be found at cubuffs.com/tracklive and a live stream is also slated to be available.  The exact link is not yet available.
 
The Mavericks will have representation in 27 (14 men's, 13 women's events) but will not be running in any of the distance events of 800 meters or longer.

A complete listing of the the entered Mavericks can be found later in this preview.
 
Meet Details
 
The meet is tentatively slated to get underway at 2 p.m. on Friday with competition in the hammer throw, javelin and triple jump events.  Saturday's action is slated to begin at 11 a.m. with events on both the track and in the field.  Events will be contested on a rolling schedule.
 
The Mavericks will be competing against a mix of Division I and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Division II opposition as well as representation from NCAA Division II and junior college programs.  Colorado Christian, the Colorado School of Mines, CSU Pueblo, MSU Denver, UCCS and Western Colorado will join the Mavs as representatives.
 
Air Force, Colorado State, Northern Colorado and Wyoming will join the host Buffaloes from the Division I ranks while Division III Colorado College and Central Wyoming College have also entered athletes.
 
Things to know
 
Admission for fans is free on Friday but will cost $8 on Saturday.  Directions, parking information and details of CU's Clear Bag Policy can be found in the meet information packet.
 
Temperatures are expected to reach a high of 66 on Friday in sunny conditions and 72 on Saturday with partly cloudy conditions.  Winds of around 15 miles per hour are also expected on Saturday, according to Weather.com.
 
Last Time Out
 
Sprinters Elijah Williams and Sierra Arceneaux, jumpers Shaya Chenoweth, Josie Coffey and Justin Thompson, thrower Hayden Riley and distance runner Lindsay Parsons led a whole host Mavericks who put up impressive marks in last week's Maverick Invite, CMU's outdoor season-opening meet.
 
Williams set three school records winning the 100 and 200-meter dashes while anchoring the Mavs to victory in the 4x100-meter relay.  Arceneaux also broke her own 200-meter record while sweeping the 100 and 200 by considerable margins.
 
Chenoweth and Thompson swept the long jump events on Friday afternoon with clutch leaps while Coffey won the high jump.  Riley also broke his own CMU record in the shot put.
 
Parsons shaved more than four minutes off her personal-best with an NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying effort in the 10K, also contested on Friday evening.
 
In total, the Mavericks posted seven NCA A Division II Championship provisional qualifying efforts throughout the meet while winning eight events. 
 
Complete recaps from both days of the meet can be seen here (FRIDAY – SATURDAY).
 
NCAA Qualifiers
 
Williams was an early NCAA Championship provisional qualifier in all three of his events and was joined by his relay teammates, Arceneaux, Coffey, Parsons and Thompson on the early season national lists.
 
Williams' 200-meter time of 20.88, which converts to 20.95 at sea-level, puts him third on the national performance list.  Arceneaux also ranks third on the women's side with her converted time of 23.94.
 
A full list of the Mavericks' NCAA Qualifiers from Week along with their current national rankings is:
 
Men's 100m- Williams (10.55, 25^th)
Men's 200m- Williams (20.95, 3^rd)
Men's 4x100m Relay- Jeremiah Wilson, Kade Christensen, Beau Thornton, Williams (40.98, 19^th)
Men's Long Jump- Thompson (7.27m/23-10.25; 13^th)
Women's 200m- Arceneaux (23.94, 3^rd)
Women's 10K- Parsons (35:39.67, 11^th)
Women's High Jump- Coffey (1.72m/5-7.75; 7^th)
 
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.
 
A total of 754 athletes (377 men & 377 women) will be selected for the national meet with desired minimum field sizes of 20 for individual events, 16 for combined events and 12 for relays and maximums of 24 (individual), 18 (relays) and 16 (combined events).
 
Record Setters
 
As mentioned earlier, Elijah Williams set three new school-records in last week's Maverick Invite, running to times of 10.52 and 20.88 seconds in the 100 and 200 meters, respectively.  His 100-meter time broke the 9-year old official school-record of 10.70, which had been set by Jordan Riggins at the 2013 RMAC Championships.  He, Jeremiah Wilson and Beau Thornton had run wind-aided times faster than Riggins.
 
In the 200, Williams smashed his own former Maverick record of 21.21 by 0.33 seconds.
 
The 4x100-meter relay time of 40.86 seconds also blasted the former Maverick standard of 41.41 seconds out of the proverbial water.  Two current Mavs in Eliot Ward and Carl Heide had been a part of the former record setting team in 2019.
 
Meanwhile, Hayden Riley recorded a toss of 16.34 (53-7.5) meters on his opening shot put attempt of the season to raise his own school record by five centimeters (2 inches).  He finished fourth in Saturday's competition.
 
Arceneaux set the only new CMU women's record with a time of 23.87 seconds in the 200 meters, lowing her own Maverick best from last season's RMAC Championships by 0.09 seconds.
 
Record-Setting Streak
 
The Maverick men set at least one new school-record in all ten of their meets during 2021-22 academic year, including last weekend's season-opener when four records went down.  The Mavs set records in all nine of their meets during the indoor season as well.
 
Day of Honors
 
Thanks to her RMAC-leading and NCAA provisional qualifying jump of 1.72 meters (5-7.75) at the Maverick Invite, sophomore Josie Coffey was named as the RMAC's Women's Field Athlete of the Week, an award that was announced   Coffey had also been recognized earlier in the day on Wednesday as one of three Maverick athletes named to the RMAC's All-Academic First Teams for indoor track and field.  Coffey and Mica Jenrette were named to the first team on the women's side while Justin Thompson was named as the Men's Academic Athlete of the Year.
 
Impressive Debuts
 
Numerous Mavericks posted strong marks in their first outdoor or overall attempts of their Maverick careers last week.
 
In the sprints, redshirt freshman Jeremiah Reed posted a time of 10.86 to rank seventh in CMU history for the 100 meters before posting a No. 4 ranking time of 21.71 in his first attempt at the outdoor 200.  True freshman Serenity Burnett-Perry also posted a No. 4 ranking time of 24.86 in the women's 200 meters in her first outdoor effort.
 
In longer races, freshman Brooke Miller ran to a time of 2:17.11 in the 800 meters to move into the No. 3 spot while another freshman in Jordan Burnett posted a time of 57.68 seconds to debut sixth on the Mavs' 400-meter charts.
 
Redshirt freshman Kira MacGill also made her 1,500 debut in 4:44.64 to rank fifth in CMU history while true freshman Rachel Meeks became just the fourth Maverick woman to complete the 3,000-meter steeplechase doing so in 11:57.16.
 
In the field, Daisy Rinehart quickly moved to No. 2 on the outdoor pole vault chart with a clearance of 3.35 meters (10-11.75) while another true freshman in Heather Yackey posted the No. 4 ranking mark in the discus throw with a heave of 40.90 meters (134-2).  She also ranks ninth in the outdoor shot put at 11.07 meters (36-4).
 
On the men's side, true freshman Eddie Kurjak cleared 1.95 meters (6-4.75) in the high jump during his first outdoor meet.  He is now tied for fourth on the Mavericks' all-time performers' list.  He also posted a new top-10 mark in the triple jump with a wind-legal mark of 13.76 (45-1.75) meters to rank seventh but had turned in an even better wind-aided mark of 13.90 meters (45-7.25) as well.
 
Freshman Becker Ell also cleared 4.45 meters (14-7.25) in his first outdoor pole vault attempt to rank fourth in CMU history.
 
In the throws, Dallas Davis III registered a javelin throw of 51.21 meters (168-0) to debut sixth in program history while redshirt freshman Jameson Moore now ranks seventh and tenth in the discus and hammer throws, respectively.
 
To view, CMU's updated top-10 performance lists after last week's meet, please click here (MEN – WOMEN).
 
CMU Entries
 
Here is the complete list of CMU's entries for this weekend's meet, broken down by event.
 
Men (30 Athletes, 48 entries)
 
100m (9)- Sterling Brassfield, Teo Casados, Kade Christensen, Nate Hanson, Jeremiah Reed, Beau Thornton, Eliot Ward, Elijah Williams, Jeremiah Wilson
200m (10)- Casados, Christensen, Zayden Davis, Kelsey Montague, Dayne Ortega, Jeremiah Reed, AJ Smallwood, Thornton, Ward, Wilson.
400m (3)- Casey Amori, Austin Reese, Jake Valdez
110m Hurdles (2)- Davis, Hanson
400m Hurdles (3)- Carl Heide, Casey McDaniel, Jeremiah Otto
4x100m Relay (1 Team)
4x400m Relay (1 Team)
High Jump (3)- Zace Buckhold, Trey Briggs, Eddie Kurjak
Long Jump (4)- Buckhold, Justin Thompson
Pole Vault (2)- Becker Ell, Garrett Searls
Shot Put (2)- Dawson Heide, Hayden Riley
Discus Throw (3)- Heide, Jameson Moore, Riley
Hammer Throw (2)- Moore, Riley
Javelin (3)- Dallas Davis III, Dawson Heide, Cameron Kalaf
 
Women (28 athletes, 47 entries)
 
100m (6)- Kierra Arceneaux, Sierra Arceneaux, Madi Bottin, Serenity Burnett-Perry, Victoria Eversley, Haley Golden
200m (9)-S. Arceneaux, Madi Bottin, Jordan Burnett, Serenity Burnett-Perry, Victoria Eversley, Haley Golden, Reilly Hall, Sophie Lindauer, Jordyn Pittman
400m (4)- Hall, Brooke Miller, McKenna Molder, Pittman
100m Hurdles (4)- Jordan Brockman, Averie Griffith, Mica Jenrette, Kailey Paterson
400m Hurdles (2)- Griffith, Lexie Williams
4x100m Relay (1 Team)
4x400m Relay (1 Team)
High Jump (5)- Josie Coffey, Megan King, Jenrette, Lindauer, Hope Matteson
Pole Vault (3)- Lydia Dawson, Paige Doran, Daisy Rinehart
Long Jump (5)- K. Arceneaux, Brockman, Chian DeLoach, Paterson, Taeryn Trumper
Shot Put (3)- Meleeah Holmes-McKown, Jenrette, Heather Yackey
Discus Throw (2)- Holmes-McKown, Yackey
Hammer Throw (2)- Holmes-McKown, Yackey
 
Up Next
 
The majority of the Mavericks team will be at home next weekend, hosting the Maverick Invite #2 on Friday, Apr. 15 and Saturday, Apr. 16.  The Mavericks will also be sending a few multi-event athletes wto Azusa, California for the Bryan Clay Invitational Multi for a meet next Wednesday and Thursday (Apr. 13-14).