GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Freshman Venesa Handzhiyska won the bronze medal in the long jump while distance runner Kirstin Williams placed seventh in the 10,000 meters, the lone point scorers from the Colorado Mesa University women, who are in second place at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships through Saturday.
 
The Maverick women also qualified four additional women, including school-record setter Brooke Miller, for running event finals on Sunday, the third and final day of the meet at the CMU Track & Field Complex, on Day 2 of the meet and are in good position to score well in the heptathlon, which will also conclude on Sunday.
 
After winning two events on Friday, the opening day of the meet, the Mavericks now have 55 ½ team points to stand second behind only the Colorado School of Mines (91 ½) and 14 ½ ahead of 4-time defending champion UCCS.
 
Handshiyska recorded a mark of 5.67 meters (18-7.25) to finish third in the long jump while Hope Matteson also made the final before settling for ninth place at 5.53 meters (18-1.75), edging teammate Kylee Kielian, who took tenth with a mark of 5.45 meters (17-10.75).
 
Williams set a new career-best time of 36:23.21 in a very fast 10K, which had to be re-run on Saturday morning after a lightning delay thwarted the event mid-race on Friday evening. 
 
Elsewhere, Jordan Burnett (24.11) and Gaby Horton (24.19) both won their respective heats of the 200 meters.  Burnett's mark was a career-best and NCAA provisional qualifying time.  Horton had an earlier season-best of 23.97.  Teammate Serenity Burnett-Perry also ran well, finishing ninth in a career-best time of 24.74 seconds but just missed out on the finals.
 
Meanwhile, Miller represented the Mavs well in the 800-meter preliminaries.  She smashed the CMU standard by more than three seconds, running to a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 2:11.32 to finish second in hear heat and fifth overall.  Alexia Chapman had the former Maverick record of 2:14.74, set more than nine years ago in 2015.
 
Elsewhere, Jordan Brockman booked a spot in Sunday's 100-meter hurdle final with a time of 14.95 seconds in her preliminary round heat.
 
The Mavs also had two runners in the 3,000-meter steeplechase as Rachel Meeks placed 15^th in 12:02.23 while Nadine Klive was 22^nd in 13:12.01.
 
In the javelin throw, freshman Kaiya Graves placed 13^th at 33.96 meters (111-5). 
 
The Mavs also have four of the top six heptathletes through four disciplines.  Katie Thomson is third with 2,803 points just 97 off the lead while Matteson is fourth with 2,689.  Brockman is fifth with 2,648 points just five ahead of Sophie Lindauer's sixth-place first day total of 2,643.
 
The Maverick men also stand in second place heading into Sunday's portion of the meet, which will get underway at 10:30 a.m.