The UCCS men's and women's track & field teams finished off a sweep of the 2022 RMAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Sunday afternoon as the women's team tallied 191 points to defeat second place Colorado School Mines (97 points) by 94 points and the men's team racked up 189 points to finish 58 points ahead of the Mines men's team (131 points).
"I’m just so proud of this team, coaches as well as support staff," said Ross Fellows, Head Track & Field Coach. "They did a phenomenal job. We had a training plan, got into a flow, trusted the process, and came away with four great victories for our program."
The Mountain Lions' sweep of the outdoor conference championships marks the second consecutive year that they have accomplished the feat and the second straight year that the program has completed the 4-for-4 sweep of the indoor and outdoor RMAC conference titles.
"This meet really showed our depth, and showed how well rounded of a program we are being on the podium in almost every event," Fellows said. "It’s hard to win in this conference and doing it back to back years on the men’s and women’s side is unheard of. We are looking forward to seeing what we can put together at nationals in a few weeks!"
INSIDE THE RMAC OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Women Final Score: 191 points
Men Final Score: 189 points
Location: CSUP Thunderbowl | Pueblo, Colo.
Elevation: 4,700 ft
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Sunday's action on the track began with a huge performance from the women's 4x100m relay team of Kayla Zink, Brittany Fuchs, Keyanda Bolton, and Audrey Bloomquist. The quartet of sprinters went on to shatter the school record for the event with a raw time of 45.12s that was good for a gold medal and ten points for the women's team. The group's altitude-converted mark of 45.24s ranks sixth on the NCAA DII performance list.
- The UCCS men's 4x100m relay team quickly followed suit with a gold medal performance of their own as Kymani Sterling, Brian Mosley Jr., Justice Mendoza, and Chris Hudnall combined to post a raw time of 40.59s and log ten points on the men's side.
- The Mountain Lion sprinters were far from finished, however, as Zink and Fuchs went on to record podium finishes in the 100m and 200m dashes while Sterling, Mendoza, and Mosley Jr. each scored points in the 100m and 200m dashes.
- In the women's 100m final, Zink raced to a second-place finish with a personal best and school record time of 11.51s and Fuchs was just behind her with a PR of her own at 11.62s, which ranks second all-time in program history. Both marks also registered as improved national qualifying marks on the Division II performance list. The roles were reversed in the women's 200m as Fuchs took second place with an improved national qualifying time of 24.04s, while Zink came in third place with a time of 24.08s. Bolton also raced in the 200m final and managed to score three points with a sixth-place finish at 24.60s.
- On the men's side, Sterling had himself a day as he earned silver medals in both the 100m and 200m dashes with respective times of 10.48s and 21.32s. Also scoring points in both events were Mosley Jr. with a pair of fifth place nods and Mendoza with a fourth-place finish in the 100m and a seventh-place finish in the 200m.
- The Mountain Lions also had a strong showing in the men's triple jump, with Dakota Abbott winning the men's flight with a mark of 15.57m and redshirt sophomore Peyton Turnage reaching the podium with a bronze medal finish at 14.84m. On the women's side, Lydia Pavlenko earned a silver medal with a huge personal best leap of 12.14m while Bloomquist added a bronze medal by reaching a PR of 12.08m. Hannah Meek also scored in the event as she jumped 11.79m for a sixth-place finish.
- Having already scored in the long jump and triple jump, Pavlenko came back to win the women's high jump as she cleared a bar height of 1.72m to earn the gold medal. Pavlenko's mark registers as an improvement on her season best provisional mark and breaks her own school record for the event.
- At the men's javelin, Sawyer Christopher posted a dominant event win as he tossed the spear 61.43m, which was more than six meters further than the next competitor. Seth Richmond (52.12m) and Thorben Hast (51.11m) also placed seventh and eighth to join Christopher as scorers in the event.
- On the women's side of the javelin, the Mountain Lions grabbed two of the three podium spots with Kamryn Bohlken taking second place at 38.09m and Caroline Walters landing in third place at 37.98m. Maggie Remsberg also tossed for a solid mark of 35.62m that earned her a fifth-place finish and four points for the team.
- It was a dominating performance in the men's 5000m race by Afewerki Zeru, who won the race by nearly 15 seconds and broke the RMAC Championship meet record with a time of 14:14.40. Layla Almasri matched Zeru in the women's 5000m race with a gold medal of her own as she outraced Mines' Zoe Baker with a time of 17:26.37.
- The Mountain Lions also found significant points in the men's and women's 1500m races. Evan Graff garnered eight points on the men's side as he raced to a time of 3:50.78 for a second-place finish, while Riley McGrath earned six points and a bronze medal in the women's race with a time of 4:35.81. Almasri and Kate Hedlund were also among the scorers in the event with Almasri placing fourth at 4:37.27 and Hedlund crossing the line seventh at 4:38.51.
- Sophomore Melissa Moreni posted a dominant event win in the women's 100m hurdles as she raced to a sub-14 second time of 13.96s to take home a gold medal and ten points. Terra Valadez added four more points from the event with a personal best time of 14.72s that was enough to finish fifth. In the men's 110m hurdle, Chris Hudnall was the fourth overall finisher with his time of 14.96s
- Redshirt sophomore Dillon Andrews made an improvement on his existing school record time with a gold medal time of 52.19s. His altitude-adjusted time of 52.30s currently sits 17th in the nation.
- Angel Laca and Ryan O'Neal each posted personal best races in the 400m as Laca put his name on the NCAA qualifying list with a silver medal time of 47.56s and O'Neal earned a bronze medal at 48.38s. On the women's side, Amber Davis clocked a sixth-place finish with a time of 57.35s.
- Emily Arseneau made her way to the podium in the women's shot put with a bronze medal throw of 13.09m. In the men's shot put competition, freshman Jarell Lucas tossed a personal best 16.11m for a fourth place finish.
- The conference championship meet ended with the women's and men's 4x400m relay races. After the women's relay team of Amber Davis, Grace Wenham, Michela Hewitt, and Ashten Loeks posted a fourth place finish, the men's team of Angel Laca, Joseph Hamilton, Dillon Andrews, and Ryan O'Neal finished the day with a one more gold medal as they won the race in commanding fashion with a time of 3:14.01.
BEYOND THE RESULTS
- Freshman Kymani Sterling was the top scoring Mountain Lion on the men's team with 16 individual points to go along with his role in the men's 4x100m event win. Redshirt senior Lydia Pavlenko led the women's team with 20 points scored as she won the high jump and scored points in the long jump and triple jump.
- The Mountain Lions totaled 34 podium finishes across the three-day meet, including 14 gold medalists, ten silver medalists and ten bronze medalists.
- With their personal best marks in the triple jump, Pavlenko (12.14m) and Bloomquist (12.08m) rank second and third all-time in program history for the event.
- The women's javelin record book was re-written on Sunday, as Bohlken (38.09m), Walters (37.98m), and Remsberg (35.62m) each reached personal best marks and occupy the third, fourth and fifth spots in program history, respectively.
UP NEXT
- The Mountain Lions will head to the Air Force Twilight Open on Friday, May 6, looking to bolster their individual national standings ahead of the NCAA Division II Championships taking place at the end of the month.
As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 16 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.
Read the original article and view the final results here.