GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University track and field teams have qualified six athletes and will be represented in seven total events at next week's NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships which will be held fairly close to home in Pueblo at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl, beginning on Thursday (May 25).
The Maverick women have five qualifiers, including 2-event representative
Sierra Arceneaux (100 & 200 meters). Also qualifying is
Josie Coffey (high jump),
Kiana Jackson (triple jump),
Mica Jenrette (heptathlon) and
Kira MacGill (5,000 meters). The lone Maverick men's qualifier is
Dawson Heide, who will compete in the decathlon.
All six Mavericks are NCAA championship veterans although MacGill and Heide will be making their outdoor championship debuts after also qualifying during the indoor season.
Live results from the 3-day meet that runs through next Saturday (May 27)
can be seen here and a
free live stream will be on NCAA.com.
Additional information about the meet, including the ability to buy tickets can be found on the
championship microsite.
Complete profiles on each of the Mavericks qualifiers can be found later in this preview.
Meet Schedule
A complete meet schedule can be found here, but here is a specific breakdown of when the Mavericks will compete.
Thursday, May 25th
10:30 a.m.-
Dawson Heide (Decathlon Events 1-5)
11 a.m.-
Mica Jenrette (Heptathlon Events 1-4)
6:10 p.m.-
Sierra Arceneaux (Women's 100m Prelims)
Friday, May 26th
9:30 a.m.-
Dawson Heide (Decathlon Events 6-10)
10:30 a.m.-
Mica Jenrette (Heptathlon Events 5-7)
4:45 p.m.-
Josie Coffey (Women's High Jump)
5:30 p.m.-
Sierra Arceneaux (Women's 200m Prelims)
Saturday, May 27th
5:30 p.m.-
Kiana Jackson (Women's Triple Jump)
6:35 p.m.-
Sierra Arceneaux *(Women's 100m Final)
7:45 p.m.-
Sierra Arceneaux* (Women's 200m Final)
8:05 p.m.-
Kira MacGill (Women's 5,000 Meter Final)
*-Assuming finals qualification
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 and program is a member of the organization. The ninth-12
th place finishers in individual events and members of the ninth and tenth place relay teams earn second team plaudits.
Deep Team
With their five individual qualifiers in six events, the Maverick women will have equal to their largest representation in program-history in terms of number of total NCAA Championship entries. In 2022, the Mavericks also had six total entries, including a relay team, and came home a program-record three all-Americans while finishing in a tie for 43
rd as a team, their highest ever finish.
CMU has now qualified at least one woman for each of the last nine championships dating back to 2014.
The CMU men have also extended their qualification run to nine consecutive championships but will have a single qualifier for the first time since 2015, when now CMU distance coach
Shane Niksic competed in both the 800 and 1500 meters, earning all-America honors in both.
Champions & All-Americans
The Mavericks have had one NCAA Outdoor Champion in 2019 men's high jump winner Ethan Harris. The Mavs have also crowned two individual and one relay national championships during the indoor season.
The Maverick men have earned 12 total all-America honors during the outdoor season, recording at least one in each of the past six years, excluding 2020, when there was no NCAA Championship due to COVID. CMU had a program-record four men's all-Americans in 2021.
CMU has had eight women's outdoor all-Americans.
National Qualifying Athlete Profiles
Men
Dawson Heide (R-Jr., Bayfield, Colo./Bayfield HS) - Decathlon
Heide will be making his NCAA Outdoor Championship debut after earning indoor all-America honors in each of the past two indoor seasons (2022 & 2023), placing fifth in the indoor heptathlon in 2022 and tenth this year. He was named as the RMAC Field Athlete of the Year for this outdoor campaign after setting a school-record decathlon score of 7,207 points at last month's Maverick Invite and will enter the NCAA Championships ranked fifth nationally on the national performance list.
Heide is the first Maverick man to ever win a RMAC major award in track & field history.
With NCAA Championship qualification assured, Heide did not contest the decathlon at the RMAC Championships but did finish fourth in three other events at the conference meet, earning Second Team All-RMAC honors in both the 110-meter hurdles and javelin throw with career-best marks of 14.50 seconds and 55.10 meters (180 feet, 9 inches). He also helped the Mavs to a fourth-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay. He has also set four other career-best marks this season and earned his second career all-region honor as the RMAC's performance list leader.
Arceneaux will be making her fourth outdoor and sixth overall NCAA Championship appearance to cap her illustrious 5-year Maverick career. She has won four previous all-America honors, including two first team plaudits and has racked up 12 career USTFCCCA All-Region honors.
Arceneaux, also a member of the Mavs' 2021 NCAA Division II title winning indoor 4x400-meter relay team, has also won seven career RMAC titles sweeping both the 100 and 200-meter crowns for the second straight year while claiming RMAC Track Athlete of the Year honors for the second straight season as well. She is also a 16-time All-RMAC performer and holds the school-record in five outdoor events, including the 100 (11.45) and 200 meters (23.47) and posted a wind-aided program-best of 23.33 in the 200 to earn the No. 5 seed in that event for the NCAA Championships. Her altitude-adjusted 100-meter season-best of 11.52 seconds has her tied for 17th coming into the national meet.
Coffey won her first RMAC outdoor title and third overall RMAC crown (2x Indoor) in the high jump and then went on to set a season-best clearance of 1.75 meters at the Loper Twilight Meet. She is tied for the No. 5 seed entering the national meet, which will be her third straight outdoor and fourth overall NCAA Championship appearance.
She cleared 1.73 meters (5-8) and took fifth place at last year's NCAA Outdoor Championships to earn her second career All-America honor after placing ninth at the 2021 indoor championships. She has also earned all-region honors in all six of her indoor and outdoor seasons and has five All-RMAC honors to her credit.
Coffey is also the outdoor (1.81m) and indoor (1.72m) high jump school-record holder.
Kiana Jackson (R-Sr., Fountain, Colo./Fountain-Fort Carson HS)- Triple Jump
Jackson will be making her second straight NCAA outdoor championship and has qualified for two NCAA indoor championships as well. She booked her trip this year with a triple jump mark of 12.36 meters (40-6.75) at last week's Loper Twilight and is the 12th seed entering the national meet, which will be her final career meet and held just a short trip down I-25 from her hometown of Fountain.
That effort is just a centimeter off her own school-record of 12.37 meters (40-7) and allowed her to earn a fourth career USTFCCCA All-Region honor.
Jackson has also earned 11 total all-RMAC honors in her 5- year career as a Maverick and placed third at the RMAC Outdoor Championships last month after taking second during the indoor season. She finished 21st at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships and was named as a 2020 indoor All-American and was on-site in Birmingham, Alabama when that year's NCAA Championships were canceled at the start of COVID pandemic.
Jenrette is the most decorated Maverick track & field athlete— male or female— in terms of career all-America honors, having won six. She is making her second straight national outdoor championship appearance in the heptathlon after taking 11th place last year and has also competed in three straight NCAA indoor championship pentathlons taking sixth in both 2021 and 2022 before taking 11th this winter.
Also a member of the NCAA title-winning 4x400-meter relay team in the winter of 2021, Jenrette enters the national meet as the No. 12 seed after setting a school-record with a score of 5,022 points at the Maverick Invite as the first Maverick to ever eclipse 5,000 points.
She is also the reigning and long-standing queen of the RMAC multis having won the heptathlon at each of the last three conference championship meets. She has also done the same in the indoor pentathlon and has seven total RMAC titles to her credit, including another in the 4x400-meter relay (2021 indoor). She has also earned eight career USTFCCCA All-Region honors and nine All-RMAC plaudits and ranks amongst the top-10 of program history in an incredible eight different outdoor disciplines.
Kira MacGill (R-So., Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe HS) – 5,000 Meters
MacGill will be looking for an All-American triple for this academic year after earning two previous honors at 2022 NCAA Cross Country and 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships during a record-setting and break-through overall campaign. She broke two long-standing Alexis Skarda school-records (1500 & 5K), which had both stood for more than a decade, at last week's APU Franson Last Chance Meet in California, recording a time of 16:23.33 in the 5,000 meters to enter the national meet as the No. 15 seed.
MacGill also took third in the 5K at the RMAC Outdoor Championships after winning the indoor title in February. She then placed tenth at the national indoor meet after finishing 29th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in December to earn her first of now two All-America honors.
She has also won six total All-RMAC honors and three all-region certificates in her three years as a Maverick, including redshirt seasons.
