Seven UCCS student-athletes will compete for national championships at the 2018 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships March 9-10. Competition will take place at the Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas.
Will Mayhew, an All-American in the indoor 800-meter run last season, will return to the event with the seventh-fastest qualifying time in the nation. He will run in the second of two heats at 3:40 p.m. MST March 9 in the preliminaries. The top two runners in each heat, plus the next four fastest times, will advance to the finals at 5:25 p.m. MST March 10.
The women’s distance medley relay team of Dejah Glover, Molly Klotz, Skylyn Webb and Kayla Wooten qualified as their performance at the Division II Invitational and Multi-Events in January held strong through the final qualifying weekend Feb. 23 through 25. The team will race at 6 p.m. MST March 9 in the finals.
Kaija Crowe, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and RMAC Athlete of the Meet for the championships, will be the first Mountain Lion in action in the women’s long jump at 1 p.m. MST March 9. She qualified with her 19 feet, 3 ¼ inch performance at the conference championships. Crowe will compete in the pentathlon March 10 as the No. 10-seeded student-athlete in the field. She will complete all five events in the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800-meter run in a span of approximately five hours.
Webb, the top-ranked 800-meter runner in Division II this season by nearly a second, will run in the preliminaries at 4 p.m. MST March 9. The top two runners from each of the three heats, plus the next two fastest times, will advance to the finals at 5:35 p.m. MST on March 10.
Wooten and Klotz will both compete in the mile run preliminaries at 2:45 p.m. MST March 9 as the RMAC qualified seven runners in the event. The Mountain Lions will be split up between the two heats and will need to finish in the top three of their heat, or with one of the top three next fastest times, to reach the finals scheduled for 4:50 p.m. MST March 10. Wooten earned All-America honors in the event last season with a sixth-place finish at the national championships.
Kayla Zink qualified as the fastest freshman in Division II for the 60-meter dash with 7.54 seconds and will race at 2:15 p.m. MST March 9 in the preliminaries. The winner of the three heats and the next five fastest times will reach the championship final at 4:30 p.m. MST March 10.
Each of the qualifiers were among the nine Mountain Lions recognized with all-region honors by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Awards went to the top five individual performances and top three relay team times in each of the eight regions. Will Ross in the triple jump and Derek Valdez in the high jump also earned all-region accolades but did not qualify for the national championships.
The championship races, and certain preliminary events as the schedule allows, will be broadcast live on NCAA.com.
UCCS Schedule of Events (all times Mountain Standard Time)
- Friday, March 9
- 1 p.m. – Women’s long jump (Crowe)
- 2:15 p.m. – Women’s 60-meter dash preliminaries (Zink)
- 2:45 p.m. – Women’s mile run preliminaries (Wooten, Klotz)
- 3:40 p.m. – Men’s 800-meter run (Mayhew)
- 4 p.m. – Women’s 800-meter run preliminaries (Webb)
- 6 p.m. – Women’s distance medley relay final (Glover, Klotz, Webb, Wooten)
- Saturday, March 10
- 9 a.m. – Women’s 60-meter dash pentathlon (Crowe)
- 9:45 a.m. (approximately) – Women’s high jump pentathlon (Crowe)
- 11:45 a.m. (approximately) – Women’s shot put pentathlon (Crowe)
- 12:30 p.m. (approximately) – Women’s long jump pentathlon (Crowe)
- 2 p.m. (approximately) – Women’s 800-meter run pentathlon (Crowe)
- 4:30 p.m. – Women’s 60-meter dash final (Zink, pending preliminary results)
- 4:50 p.m. – Women’s mile run final (Wooten, Klotz, pending preliminary results)
- 5:25 p.m. – Men’s 800-meter run (Mayhew, pending preliminary results)
- 5:35 p.m. – Women’s 800-meter run (Webb, pending preliminary results)
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