CHADRON, Neb.— Cameron Kalaf won a 1-2-4 Colorado Mesa University finish in the javelin throw with a school-record distance, kicking off a superb day of results for the Maverick men's track and field team which turned in a second place finish, their best ever at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which wrapped up Sunday here on the campus of Chadron State College.
The Mavs entered the third and final day of the meet in seventh place and with 19 team points but surged to a school-record setting total of 125 ½ throughout Sunday's 14 scored events thanks in large part to eight medal-winning efforts.
CMU's previous best finish came back in 2017 when the Mavs took third with 124 team points.
Kalaf's throw of 62.10 meters (203 feet, 9 inches) in the opening round proved to be good enough for the javelin gold and a new school-record by four inches over Roth Morgan's former mark of 62.01 meters (203-5) and onto the NCAA Division II Championship selection bubble. He ranks 19
th on the current national performance list ahead of 27
th-ranked freshman teammate
Gavin Korkeakoski, who took the silver medal on Sunday with a throw of 58.83 meters (193-0).
Meanwhile,
Dawson Heide took fourth with a personal-best throw of 55.10 meters (180-9) as the Mavs scored 23 team points in that event moving up three spots to fourth in the team standings after the first day of the event.
Beau Thornton,
Teo Casados,
Kade Christensen and
Elijah Williams then turned in a second place time of 40.57 seconds, second fastest in school-history, in the 4x100-meter relay, the first track event of the day.
The Mavs then racked up another 12 team points in the 110-meter hurdles as they moved into third place.
Zayden Davis led the way, placing third and earning his second straight RMAC Championship medal in the discipline with a time of 14.68 seconds. Heide finished fourth in 14.977 seconds while
Nate Hanson took eighth in 15.81.
After a fifth place finish from
Justin Blanton in the 400 meters (48.60), Williams turned in a third place time of 10.68 seconds in the 100 while his relay teammates took the sixth, seventh and eighth place spots. Christensen was clocked in 10.84 seconds while Thornton took seventh in 10.87. Casados was timed in 12.42.
The Mavs then racked up ten more team points in the 400-meter hurdles as
Kelsey Montague won the bronze medal with a time of 54.35 seconds, moving him up two spots to second in program history. Freshman
Logan Hafey also placed fifth in 55.34. seconds.
Williams then took seventh in the 200 meters with a time of 21.98 seconds before
Triston Charles, CMU's lone qualifier in the 5,000 meters took fourth place with a time of 14:52.36, a new personal-best time that moved him up a spot to third in program history.
Meanwhile, the Mavs were jumping up the team standings in the field events as
Hayden Riley smashed his own school-record in the shot put with a fourth-place and NCAA Championship provisional qualifying mark of 16.71 meters while
Zace Buckhold earned medals in both the high and triple jump events.
Riley's third round throw was more than a foot better than his former Maverick standard of 16.34 meters (53-7.5), set last season.
Buckhold cleared 1.99 meters (6-6.25) to tie for third in the high jump while
Eddie Kurjak took fifth after getting over the same bar on his second attempt.
In the triple jump, Buckhold turned in an effort of 14.62 meters (47-11.75) while
Spencer Purnell finished sixth at 13.88 meters (45-6.5).
The Mavs also scored a fourth place time of 3:15.84, second best in program history in the 4x400-meter relay to complete the day. Blanton,
AJ Smallwood, Heide and Montague traded the baton in that event.
UCCS won the team title with 180 points while the Mavs finished just ahead of CSU Pueblo (111.5), Colorado School of Mines (111) and Western Colorado (106.5) and the rest of the 13-team field.
The Maverick women also set a new program-record for RMAC Championship team points (102) as Sierra Arceneaux successfully defended her 100/200-meter sprinting double.
