Kaymarie Jones
The Paw Print
As they wind down to the final weeks of the indoor season, the Adams State men’s and women’s track and field team qualified both distance medley relay (DMR) teams at the Joe Davies Open, hosted by Colorado Mines in Golden, Colo. The Grizzlies are well prepared to compete with athletes from across the nation at the NCAA Indoor Championship, and are also in good standing going into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Championships this Friday.
The women led the way on the tight Mines track in the DMR, clocking 11.46.54 with Alyssa Selve, Kayon Robinson, Tayler Warren, and Alicia Nelson. Selve, Robinson, and Nelson had already qualified for their individual events earlier in the season. Warren will have another shot at qualifying at the conference championship. The men’s DMR leads the nation with an automatic qualifying time of 9.40.02 with Tabor Stevens, Jacob Rider, Matt Daniels, and Kevin Batt. All four men are included in the top fifteen times in the nation; Stevens has the two top spots in the mile and the 3000m, Ruder is fourteenth in the 800m, Daniels is number three in the mile, and Batt is second to Stevens in both the mile and the 3000m.
With more room to get around the circle, Katie Kruger is throwing much further in the women’s shotput. On Saturday, Kruger improved from her 14.01 mark in Seattle to 14.25 meters, moving her up to twelfth on the national list. In the men’s shotput, Zach Baxter threw 14.12 meters and Joe Hochanadel threw 15.02 in the men’s weight throw. Both Baxter and Hochanadel are eight and second on the RMAC list.
Wisconsin dynamite Chelsea Fenderson ran a season best of 7.84 seconds in the women’s 60m. Her teammate, Sunayna Wahi, also ran a personal best of 7.91 seconds. On the men’s side, Chaz Butler’s 6.81 seconds, Jurgen Themen’s 6.88 seconds, and Justin Smit’s 6.94 seconds, are good for the second, third and fourth place spots on the conference list. Carlton Lavong, and the Bahamian native Charles Miller showed great efforts competing for the first time in the men’s 60 meters when they clocked 7.10 seconds and 7.25 seconds. Tyler Cappelucci finished in 7.21 seconds.
Kristen McGlynn-Arendt added another NCAA provisional time to her 5000m, running 4.56.82 in the women’s mile. Freshman Quin Ralston was a force to reckon with in the men’s section. Leading the Grizzlies, Ralston finished second in 4.09.36 and Junior Jovanny Godinez was third in 4.10.19. Stephen Emery and Andrew Roberts were third and fourth in 4.11.04 and 4.11.26.
Sophomore Deke Brown crossed the finish line in a personal best time of 49.34 seconds and freshman Megan Hannafious completed her one two laps in 58.74 seconds. Freshman Carlton Lavong moved up to 7th place on the national list with his distance of 7.37 meters and Justin Bethea cleared 2.02 meters in the men’s high jump.
The Grizzlies will now face their RMAC rivals at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, hosted by Black Hills State University in Spearfield, SD.
What’s Been Said…