GOLDEN, Colo.— Christina Palmer broke her own school record while placing fourth in the shot put while the Colorado Mesa University Maverick women's track & field team garnered 12 additional team points with third, fifth and seventh place finishes in the heptathlon allowing the Mavericks to move up to fifth place in the team standings after Day 2 of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships, which continued Saturday here at the Colorado School of Mines' Stermole Track & Field Complex.

Palmer set a throw of 13.79 meters (45 feet, 3 inches) to surpass the former CMU standard of 13.72 meters (45-0.25) that she set in 2024.  Teammate Augustine Hancock also moved up two spots to fourth in program history with a ninth place throw of 12.51 meters (41-0.5) after taking seventh in the hammer throw on Friday.

Meanwhile, freshman Kaitlyn Pearson set a career-best score of 4,519 points in the heptathlon to claim the bronze medal leading the Maverick trio in the 2-day, 7-discipline competition.  Katie Thomson finished fifth with 4,138 while Atahlia Mills placed seventh with 4,015.

Pearson fared second best in the 19-woman field in the long jump with a leap of 5.41 meters (17-9) and turned in a javelin throw mark of 28.48 meters (93-5) before running to a second place time of 2:27.23 in the 800 meters.  The long jump and 800-meter performances were the best of her CMU career.

Pearson and Mills also turned in matching efforts of 14.72 seconds in the 100-meter hurdle preliminaries to advance to Sunday's final.

The same can be said for Brooke Miller in the 800 after the Maverick school record holder won the preliminary rounds in 2:15.04.

Gaby Horton also fared well in the 200 meters, setting a wind-legal career-best time of 23.74 seconds to qualify second for the final while moving up on to the NCAA Division II Championship provisional qualifying list. 

In the triple jump, freshman Kendra Ritzmann finished ninth with a season-best of 11.27 meters (36-11.5).  She continues to rank sixth in CMU outdoor history.

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Shirley Weaver finished 16^th in 11:45.65.

The Maverick men continue to sit third heading into the final day of the championships.