GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— A new season and era in the Colorado Mesa University track & field program will get underway this weekend when the Mavericks send a large contingent of more than 60 athletes to Saturday's Mountaineer Open in Gunnison, the Mavs' first full-team meet of the 2024-25 indoor campaign.

Saturday's meet in Western Colorado University's Mountaineer Field House will get underway 11 a.m.  Action is slated to run until about 3 p.m.

The meet will in essence be a dual between the Mavericks and host Mountaineers along with some unattached athletes.

WCU will not be streaming the meet, but live results can be accessed at the link above.

A full recap will also be posted on www.cmumavericks.com on Saturday evening.

The complete list of Maverick entries for Saturday's meet can be found below.

New Coaches

Both teams in Saturday's meet will have new head coaches in charge of their respective programs.

The Mavs' Director of Track & Field and Cross Country is Travis Floeck, who came to CMU over the summer after spending nine years in the Big Sky Conference at the University of Idaho, where he was the head distance and assistant track and field coach for the Vandals.

Floeck has already made an impact on the Maverick program during the fall cross country season, leading the Maverick women to just their second all-time team appearance at the NCAA Division II Championships.  The Mavericks qualified for the first time since 2014, the same year that Floeck started at Idaho.  CMU's men also had a 6-place improvement at the regional championships from a year ago and took eighth at the very deep RMAC Championships, two spots higher than they were picked to finish, according to the preseason coaches' poll.

To read more about Floeck's hiring and background, please click here.

WCU also has a new head track and field coach in Austin Billings.

Putting Together a Staff

Floeck has also put together an impressive staff, mixing in promotions of returning Maverick coaches while hiring some new faces.

Most notably, long-time Maverick assistant coach Tim Reetz has been promoted to the role of associate head track & field coach.  He will continue to personally coach the CMU sprinters, hurdlers and relays and will play a major role in the management of the entire program.

Palisade native and CMU alum Jay Shuman has also been promoted to full-time status after serving as a graduate assistant and will be the Mavs' throws, multis and pole vault coach.

Meanwhile, Floeck has hired former UCCS graduate assistant coach and record-setting jumper Hannah Meek as the Mavs' jumps coach. 

Oregon State record holder and Palisade native Greta Van Calcar is Floeck's graduate assistant for cross country and distance running.

Additionally, Sam Hyme has been retained as a distance coaching assistant on a volunteer basis.  Josh Mathe, who also serves as the CMU Athletic Department's Nutritionist, has also been added as another volunteer assistant coach.

Floeck commented, "I am so grateful for the staff I have in place. It feels like a dream staff and I am extremely confident in each one of them and who they are as people. Priority number one was to make sure the staff was compiled of coaches with high character and who have a passion for helping student-athletes. I am so thrilled to go to work with them each day," Floeck said.

To reach more about the staff, please click here.

A new era

In addition to the new staff, the 2024-25 season will be a bit of a new era of Maverick track & field as many of the most recognizable names have been lost due to graduation or Division I opportunities.

The Maverick women have 16 new freshman on their roster plus eight other redshirt freshman in terms of indoor eligibility.  The Maverick men have 11 true and 10 redshirt freshmen on their roster and have also two new transfers.

All Not Lost

Although there will be many new names, all has certainly not been lost for the Mavericks, who have four athletes on their current roster who have earned all-America honors previously in their careers.

Kelsey Montague, a fifth-year senior who will compete his eligibility with this indoor season, is the lone Maverick man in that club after picking up second team honors in the 400-meter hurdles during the last outdoor season.

Meanwhile, there are three Maverick women who have earned a combined five all-America honors on the 2024-25 roster.  Sprinter Jordan Burnett was the 2023 RMAC Indoor Freshman of the Year and won two all-America honors that campaign.
 
Multi-event standout Sophie Lindauer was also on the Mavs' national placing 4x400-meter relay team that year while distance runner Kira MacGill has won two previous all-America honors in the 2023 indoor and outdoor campaigns.

Augustine Hancock and Gaby Horton also qualified for their first NCAA Championships during the 2024 outdoor season and also return while hoping to make the step to all-America status this winter.

Conference Champs

Three Maverick men, who won Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles during the 2024 outdoor championships are also returning.  Teo Casados (200 meters) and Justin Blanton (400) should lead a talented Maverick sprinting squad while the aforementioned Kelsey Montague, who the 400-meter hurdles RMAC title.  Although his event is not contested indoors, he ranks second in program history for the indoor 400, ahead of Blanton, and has been a standout relay runner throughout his career.

Casados also holds the Mavs' 200-meter indoor record.

On the women's side, Katie Thomson will return to defend her RMAC pentathlon title, while Jordan Burnett won both the 200 and 400 meters in 2023.  Burnett holds Mavs' indoor 400-meter school record.

Augustine Hancock then claimed the hammer throw outdoor title, an event that tends to correlate with indoor weight throw success.  She is the Mavs' indoor weight throw record holder.

Early Start

Five Maverick pentathletes, including Katie Thomson, are slated to get their season underway a day before the rest of the Maverick team, competing at Friday's Mines Alumni Classic.  For a preview of that meet, click here.

Moving Indoors

Six of the seven of the Maverick women who competed at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships plus just two weeks ago plus alternate Shirley Weaver are entered in events for Saturday's meet as they will try to take advantage of their built-up fitness and strong form to get solid marks at the start of the indoor track & field campaign.

Quin Gregg is slated to run the mile alongside Megan Hodges, who is also entered in the 800 meters as a rabbit for CMU school-record holder Brooke Miller, who enjoyed a fine cross country season.

Weaver is also entered in the mile while Kate Linstedt and Kendall White are both slated to contest the 3,000 meters.  CMU cross country leader Kirstin Williams is entered in both the 3K and 5K events.

Championship Qualifying Procedures

The Mavericks will be gunning for championship qualifying marks throughout the season, including at this weekend's meets.  To qualify for the RMAC Championships, athletes must be amongst the top 18 declared athletes in their respective events on the conference's season-long performance lists, which will also factor in altitude and track-size conversions, which try to level out the various conditions and locations that RMAC athletes compete in.

The RMAC Championships will be held on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1 in Colorado Springs.

The national championship selections will be made on a similar basis with the top 18 declared athletes in each of the individual event qualifying.  The top 16 combined event performers (heptathlon/pentathlon) will also receive an invite to the Mar. 13-15 NCAA Division II National Championships in Indianapolis.  The top 12 relay teams will also be selected.

This procedure is a slight tweak to the past few seasons when the number of qualifiers in each event varied slightly when the national committee used a "desired field size" mandate, rather than a hard cutoff.

Maverick Entries

Here is an event-by-event look at the Mavericks entered in Saturday's Mountaineer Open.  The Mavericks will be represented in all but two of the 30 events that will be contested.

Men
60m: Marik Cummings, Quentin Hartel, Walker Mathews, Amaris Mora
200m: Jackson Berninger, Hartel, Trevor Kendall, Mathews, Mora, Antonio Wadsworth
400m: Berninger, Dylan Campbell, Kelsey Montague, Wadsworth
800m: Jackson Baker, Campbell, Kevin DeGree, Dillon Elliott, Peter Leary, John McGill, Jack Singleton, Kyle Towne, Winter Whittle
Mile: Drexel Cox
3K: Quintin Collins, Cox
5K: Baker, DeGree
60m Hurdles: Aidan Brownell, Logan Hafey, AJ Iarusso, Kendall
4x400m Relay: 3 Teams
High Jump: None
Pole Vault: Garrett Searls
Long Jump: Salem Brunk, Antone Higgs, Hayden Moreno, Roman Sackman
Triple Jump: Brunk, Higgs
Shot Put: Van Chambers, Kaiden Major, Cain Trimble
Weight Throw: Chambers, Major, Trimble

Women

60m: Serenity Burnett-Perry, Emily Fowler, Kiona Gonzales-Gibbs, Gaby Horton, Sylvia Johansen, Kammi Merritt, Hannah Schissler, Sadie Smilanich, Navaya Steele, Lexie Williams
200m: Burnett-Perry, Madison Cook, Rimari Facey, Fowler, Gonzales-Gibbs, Horton, Olivia Langner, Merritt, Jessie Schaffer, Schissler, Smilanich, Steel, Williams
400m: Cook
800m: Megan Hodges, Gianna Kirking, Brooke Miller
Mile: Quin Gregg, Hodges, Autumn McCorkel, Rachel Meeks, Shirley Weaver
3K: Kate Linstedt, Kendall White, Kirstin Williams
5K: Williams
60m Hurdles: Facey, Langner, Schaffer
4x400m Relay: 3 Teams
High Jump: Kaelea Gibson, Langner
Pole Vault: None
Long Jump: Waycee Harvey, Emily Hruby, Addy Kirkpatrick, Lily Nieslanik, Kendra Ritzmann
Triple Jump: Gibson, Nieslanik, Ritzmann
Shot Put: Aaliyah Bos, Augustine Hancock, Lily Lofland, Christina Palmer, Elly Thiem
Weight Throw: Bos, Hancock, Lofland, Jaylynn Morgan, Palmer, Thiem

Up Next

After this weekend, the Mavericks will take nearly full weeks off for the holiday break before returning to competition at the Adams State University Qualifier in Alamosa on Jan. 24 and 25, 2025.

Academically, the Mavericks will take final exams for the fall semester next week.