GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks have eight individuals and their women's 4x400-meter relay team set for action at this weekend's NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
 
Action gets underway on Friday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern (8 a.m. Mountain) with the start of the men's heptathlon at the Virginia Beach Sports Center and will wrap up on Saturday evening with the 4x400-meter relays.  The Maverick women will go off at 4:30 p.m. Eastern (2:30 p.m.) that day.
 
The Mavericks will be represented in nine events (5 women's, 4 men's) throughout the meet
 
Live results can be seen here (https://results.leonetiming.com/?mid=5414) and a free live stream will be on NCAA.com.
 
Additional information about the meet can be found on the championship webpage.
 
Who's going?
 
As mentioned above, the Mavericks have qualified athletes in eight individual events (4 men's, 4 women's) and will have ten total (6 women, 4 men) athletes at the meet. 
 
All but two of the qualified Mavericks are previous national championship qualifiers. 
 
This year's women's contingent is the largest in school-history.
 
The Maverick men are led by returning heptathlon all-American Dawson Heide, seeded third in that 7-discipline contest, and 4-time all-American and 5-time national championship qualifier Justin Thompson, seeded sixth in the long jump.  Elijah Williams, who took third in the 200 meters at last year's national championships in Pittsburg, Kansas also returns and is seeded 15th.  Redshirt senior Spencer Purnell will also contest the triple jump as the No. 14 seed.  He is a 2-time outdoor championship qualifier and 2021 All-American but will making his NCAA indoor championship debut.
 
The Maverick women return three all-Americans in the individual events, a group led by 4-timer Mica Jenrette, who has taken sixth in the pentathlon at each of the last two years.  She is seeded 12th this year.  2020 indoor all-American Kiana Jackson is now a 3-time NCAA Championship qualifier in the triple jump and enters seeded 14th.  Redshirt sophomore Kira MacGill will be making her national track meet debut as the No. 5 seed in the 5,000 meters.  She earned Cross Country All-America honors in the fall.
 
Meanwhile, Jordan Burnett, named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year on Wednesday, will be the No. 10 seed in the 400 meters in her national championship debut.  She is also expected to team up with 3-time sprinting all-American Sierra Arceneaux, national championship debutant Sophie Lindauer and Jenrette in the 4x400-meter relay.  The Mavs are seeded eighth in that event.  Arceneaux and Jenrette were both on the Mavs' 2021 title winning relay squad.
 
For full details and biographical summaries on each Maverick qualifier, please read last week's championship selection recap.
 
Schedule
 
The complete meet schedule can be seen here.
 
More specifically, here is when the Mavericks will compete.  Their overall seed and season-best (altitude and track-size converted) performance are also indicated.
 
Friday, Mar. 10*
 8 a.m.- Dawson Heide (Heptathlon, Events 1-4; 3^rd, 5479)
Noon- Justin Thompson (Long Jump; 6^th, 7.59m)
2:10 p.m.- Jordan Burnett (400m Prelims, 10^th, 55.00)
3:20 p.m.- Elijah Williams (200m Prelims; 15^th, 21.30)
3:30 p.m.- Kira MacGill (5K, 5^th, 16:23.31)
 
Saturday, Mar. 11*
8:30 a.m.- Mica Jenrette (Pentathlon; 12^th, 3733)
8:45 a.m.- Dawson Heide (Heptathlon, Events 5-7)
11 a.m.- Kiana Jackson (14^th, 12.15m)
2:05 p.m.- Spencer Purnell (14th, 15.09m)
2:50 p.m#.-Jordan Burnett (400m Finals)
3:40 p.m.#- Elijah Williams# (200m Finals)
4:30 p.m.- Women's 4x400m Relay (8^th, 3:44.86)
 
*-All times converted to Mountain Time
#- Assuming Qualification
 
RMAC Championship Rewind
 
The Maverick women won four events and claimed seven total medals at last month's RMAC Championships, finishing with 97 team points, their second highest total (110 in 2021) in program history.  They finished third as a team.
 
Jordan Burnett was a double-winner, taking both the 200 and 400 meters while Kira MacGill won the 5,000.  Mica Jenrette also won her third straight RMAC pentathlon and fifth straight RMAC multi-event title.  Sierra Arceneaux took second behind Burnett in the 200 meters while Kiana Jackson brought home the silver medal in the triple jump.  Jordan Brockman also claimed the bronze in the pentathlon.
 
The Maverick men, battered by injuries, finished sixth as a team but still had four different medalists.  Justin Thompson took second in the long jump and tied for second in the high jump.  Zayden Davis (60-meter hurdles) and Dayne Ortega (400 meters) both broke their own school-records to finish second as well.  Teo Casados also won his first conference championship medal, taking the bronze in the 200 meters.
 
Elijah Williams was the fastest qualifier in the 200 meters and the second in the 60 meters but did not run the finals out of injury concerns.  He had won both events at the 2022 RMAC Championships before earning first and second team all-America honors in those respective events at last year's national meet.

Wish you were here
 
The Mavericks would have had two other NCAA Championship individual qualifiers if not for injuries.  Gunner Rigsby, who held the all-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference record in the triple jump for the early portion of the season, ended up second on the season-long national performance list at 16.17 meters (53-0.75) but suffered an injury in the last regular season meet which forced him out of both the RMAC and national championships.
 
Meanwhile, McKenna Molder would have also qualified for the national championships in the 400 meters, finishing 19th on the national performance list at 55.54.  She also missed the RMAC Championships and was like Rigsby, was not declared for the national meet.
 
Molder was also on the Mavs' qualifying 4x400-meter relay team but will be replaced by Sierra Arceneaux on that unit.  Distance runner Kira MacGill is now the Mavericks' alternate on the relay team.
 
What it Takes
 
The top eight finishers in each event will score points for their team on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.  Additionally, those athletes will also earn First Team All-America honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, provided their coach is a member.  The ninth-12^th place finishers in individual events and members of the ninth and tenth place relay teams earn second team plaudits.
 
NCAA History
 
The Mavericks have enjoyed a great deal of success at previous NCAA Championships, especially as of late under now sixth-year head coach Brad Gamble.
 
The Maverick  women have now qualified at least one athlete for the NCAA Indoor Championships in five of the last six years and have had at least one-all-American in each of the previous four qualification instances during that stretch.  In 2021, the Mavericks finished in a tie for 12^th in the team standings as six different athletes earned a combined seven all-America honors.  The Mavs also won the 4x400-meter national title that year, which is so far the only national crown in the women's program history.
 
CMU's women have earned 14 total all-America certificates for indoor track & field, 11 of which have come under Gamble's tenure.  They had just three in the first 12 years of the program.

The Maverick men have been even better under Gamble, qualifying at least one athlete for the NCAA Indoor Championships in all six years with him leading the program.  They have also had at least one all-American in each year as well and crowned a pair of national champions at the 2018 championships in Spencer Jahr (heptathlon) and Nolan Ellis (pole vault).  The Mavs set a program-record by tying for 11^th place that year and finished in a tie for 13^th last year after sending five athletes in six events, four of which earned a combined five all-America honors.
 
All-Region accolades
 
The Mavericks had 11 athletes earn a combined 15 all-region honors, handed out by the USTFCCCA this week.  The ten Mavericks who will be competing at this week's NCAA Championships combined for 12 of those as Jordan Burnett led all Mavericks with three honors.  Dawson Heide was also the region's top performer in the heptathlon.
 
For complete details on the all-region accolades, please read this recap.
 
Twenty-Five
 
That was the number of All-RMAC honors that 18 different Mavericks combined to earn.  The top three finishers in each individual event at the RMAC Championships received first team plaudits while the fourth through sixth place finishers garnered second team honors.
 
To view the complete breakdown, please read this recap.
 
Up Next
 
This weekend's meet will wrap up the Mavericks' indoor season.  They are due to open the outdoor campaign on Mar. 31-Apr. 1 at the CSU Pueblo Invite #3 on a modified outdoor schedule, which can be seen here.