GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Five Colorado Mesa University athletes will aim for national glory this weekend when they head to Pittsburg, Kansas for this week's NCAA Division II National Indoor Track & Field Championships.
The meet will be held on Friday and Saturday in Pittsburg State University's Robert W. Plaster Center and is hosted by the Gorillas and the Crawford County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
How to Follow
Pittsburg State's meet webpage includes all sorts of useful information, including links to the full meet schedule, parking information and the ability to purchase tickets for those attending in person.
For Maverick fans not making the trip,
live results can also be accessed here.
A live stream can also be found on NCAA.com.
Daily recaps will also be posted on
www.cmumavericks.com.
The Qualified Mavs
The Mavericks qualified four men and one woman for this year's meet. They are very well represented in the jumping events and will also have one heptathlete in
Dawson Heide, making his third consecutive NCAA Indoor Championship appearance in that event.
The Mavs will also be represented in the men's long jump by
Justin Thompson, the men's high jump by
Eddie Kurjak and the men's triple jump by both Kurjak and freshman
Miller Jones.
Josie Coffey is the lone Maverick woman to qualify. She will compete in the high jump.
Here is a look at the event-by-event schedule for the qualified Mavs.
Friday, Mar. 8
10 a.m.- Men's Heptathlon (60 Meters)-
Dawson Heide
10:45 a.m.*- Men's Heptathlon (Long Jump)- Heide
12:15 p.m.*- Men's Heptathlon (Shot Put)- Heide
1 p.m.*- Men's Heptathlon (High Jump)- Heide
3:40 p.m.- Women's High Jump-
Josie Coffey
4:50 p.m.- Men's Long Jump-
Justin Thompson
Saturday, Mar. 9
Noon- Men's Heptathlon (60m Hurdles)- Heide
12:45 p.m.- Men's Heptathlon (Pole Vault)- Heide
2:45 p.m.- Men's Heptathlon (1,000 Meters)- Heide
3:30 p.m.- Men's High Jump-
Eddie Kurjak
5:35 p.m.- Men's Triple Jump-
Miller Jones & Kurjak
More details about each qualifier can be found in the athlete capsules on
last week's championship selection announcement release.
Veteran Presence
Three of the five Maverick qualifiers will have a veteran presence as multiple-time national qualifiers and all-Americans.
Justin Thompson,
Dawson Heide and
Josie Coffey have qualified a combined 12 times for previous NCAA Championships and will all compete on Friday. That trio has also earned a combined 11 all-America honors throughout their careers.
Meanwhile, first time national qualifiers
Eddie Kurjak and
Miller Jones will have to wait until Saturday to make their championship debuts. Kurjak will compete in two events that afternoon, contesting both the high jump and triple jump event as the Mavs' lone 2-event qualifier.
All-America Honors
In addition to the individual event titles, the Maverick athletes will be aiming for team points and all-America honors. Team points will be handed out to the top eight individual finishers in each event on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Additionally, those eight finishers will earn U.S. Track & Field and Cross County Coaches Association First Team All-America honors. The ninth through 12
th place finishers in the individual events will earns second team honors. The ninth and tenth place relay teams earn the second team honors as well.
Aiming for History
Justin Thompson will enter Friday's long jump competition as a 5-time all-American in his brilliant jumping and academic career. If he is able to finish in the top 12, he would earn his sixth career all-American honor and would become the most decorated Maverick men's track & field athlete in program history, at least in terms of career honors. He is currently tied with Nolan Ellis atop the list at five.
If he is able to do so, Thompson would also match now Maverick graduate assistant coach
Mica Jenrette, the CMU women's and overall track & field record holder with six honors.
Coffey and Heide both have three all-America honors to their credit.
NCAA History
The Mavericks have enjoyed a great deal of success at previous NCAA Championships, especially as of late under now seventh-year head coach
Brad Gamble.
The Maverick women have now qualified at least one athlete for the NCAA Indoor Championships in five straight and six of Gamble's seven years and have had at least one-all-American in each of the last four years during that stretch as well. 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.
The Mavs matched that total of seven second team all-America honors last season as five different women combined to win those honors, including the four 4x400-meter relay honorees.
CMU's women have earned 21 total all-America certificates for indoor track & field, 18 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 seven 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. The 2018 championships were also held in Pittsburg, Kansas as this the case this year.
The Mavs then finished in a tie for 13
th in 2022 after sending five athletes in six events, four of which earned a combined five all-America honors.
The Mavs had three all-Americans in as many events last year, including Thompson, who earned first team honors with a sixth place finish in the long jump, and Heide, who earned second team accolades with a tenth place finish in the heptathlon last year.
Heide also finished fifth in the heptathlon in 2022 while Thompson was 11
th in the long jump that year. Thompson also placed sixth in the high jump at the 2021 NCAA indoor championships.
All-Region accolades
The Mavericks had ten athletes earn a combined 12 all-region honors, handed out by the USTFCCCA this week. The five Mavericks who will be competing at this week's NCAA Championships combined for seven of those as
Dawson Heide and
Eddie Kurjak earned two each.
Josie Coffey,
Miller Jones and
Justin Thompson were also amongst the recognized Mavericks.
For complete details on the all-region accolades,
please read this recap.
Coaching Awards
Brad Gamble made program history on Thursday as he was named as the RMAC Men's Coach of the Year, becoming the first Maverick track and field coach to ever earn that honor. Gamble is also the third CMU Coach this week to earn their sport's RMAC Coach of the Year honor joining Mike DeGeorge (men's basketball) and Taylor Wagner (women's basketball), who were both recognized on Wednesday.
The awards are determined by a vote of their peers.
History Making Freshman
Miller Jones also made CMU men's track & field history on Thursday, becoming the Mavericks' first RMAC Freshman of the Year, an award he shared with Chadron State's Chayton Bynes, despite finishing one place ahead of Bynes in the triple jump at the RMAC Championships. Jones won the RMAC title and set the fieldhouse record of 15.55 meters (51 feet, 0 ¼ inch) after setting his national-qualifying and RMAC season-long performance list leading mark of 15.57 meters (51-1) just two weeks before en-route to RMAC Field Athlete of the Week honors.
Jones is the first Maverick man to earn RMAC Freshman of the Year honors in either indoor or outdoor track and field. The CMU women have had three previous honorees, including two indoor selections in
Josie Coffey (2021) and
Jordan Burnett (2023), who are leading members of the CMU women's squad.
All-RMAC honor haul
The Mavericks track & field squads also had 22 athletes combined for 13 first team and 31 total All-RMAC honors, which were also announced on Thursday in conjunction with the conference's major award winners.
First Team All-RMAC honors go to the top three finishers in each individual event and to each member of a winning relay team while second team plaudits are bestowed to those who finished fourth through sixth in an individual event and to members of the runner-up relay teams.
For a complete summary of all the Maverick' award winners, click on these links.
In the Rankings
The Maverick men will enter the NCAA Championships ranked 11
th in the Week 7 or Pre-Championships edition of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's National Rating Index, released on Monday. Those calculations were based only on marks from athletes who will be competing at the championships this week.
The Mavericks have been ranked all season, reaching a program-record high No. 7 in the Week No. 3 rankings.
The Maverick men also finished fifth in the South Central Regional Index and second in the RMAC index.
The CMU women are 46
th in the pre-championship edition of the national index and were eighth in the regional index and fourth in the conference index.
To see all the indexes,
please visit the USTFCCCA rankings webpage here.
A look back to the RMAC Championships
Both Maverick teams finished third at the RMAC Championships held on Feb. 23-24 in Spearfish, South Dakota. The Maverick men swept the jumping events and set a new program-record with 106 team points.
Miller Jones (Triple Jump),
Eddie Kurjak (High Jump) and
Justin Thompson (Long Jump) were the CMU men's event winners. CMU also combined for nine medal winning efforts, claiming three second place and three third place finishes as well.
The Mavs amassed 59 of their team points in the three jumping events.
The Maverick women had two individual champions in
Josie Coffey (high jump) and Katie Thomsen (pentathlon). The scored 81 team points to finish in the top three for the fourth straight year. They also had 19 team-scoring efforts and claimed five medals.
Complete recaps for both genders and both days of the RMAC Championships can be seen at the links below.
Up Next
The Mavericks will begin the outdoor season in two weeks at the Spank Blasing Invitational, hosted by CSU Pueblo on Mar. 22-23. This meet is a chance from earlier schedules, which had the Mavs opening at the Willie Williams Classic in Tucson, Arizona.
The Mavs will be at home three times during the outdoor season and will play host to the RMAC Championships for the first time from Aug. 26-28.
