ALAMOSA, Colo. Western Colorado started off day one of the 2023 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Indoor Championships on a strong note as they had one champion, and seven other athletes earn all-conference honors.

After the conclusion of day one, the men's team was in first-place with 38-points and the women's team was in fifth-place with 16-points.

The top-three finishers in each event are named all-conference first-team selections, while the fourth, fifth and sixth-place finishers are tabbed all-conference second-team. For relay events, the first-place team is named to the first team and the second-place team is named to the second team.

FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE

• Malcom Wesley shined bright in the men's long jump as his distance of 7.53m (24-08.50), earned himself the RMAC Indoor Championship title. That mark alone is an impressive feat. But, it is even more impressive when one realizes that distance is now the new school record in the event, Wesley taking down his previous school record of 7.40m (24-03.75).
• Timothy Ellis started Western off on a strong note, earning himself first team all-conference honors by tying his NCAA DII provisional qualifying clearance of, 5.00m (16-feet, four-and-three-fourth-inch) in the men's pole vault. That mark earned him second-place.
• The next athlete to earn first team all-conference was Michael Grabowski, who came in third-place with a time of 15:21.43 in the men's 5,000m.
• In the women's weight throw, Ali Aldrich earned herself first team all-conference honors by recording a toss of 17.96m (58-11.25), which earned her third-place.

SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE

• Jacob Hernandez earned second team all-conference honors in the men's 5,000m, Hernandez finishing in fourth-place (15:30.06).
• Flying to a distance of 5.42m (17-09.50) in the women's long jump, Eireann Donohoe earned herself sixth-place and second team all-conference honors.
• Ismael Dembele also earned second team all-conference honors in the men's long jump, with a leap of 7.25m (23-09.50)

MOVING ON TO THE FINALS

• In the men's 60m hurdles preliminaries, Jacob Stroup and Sam Burns came in seventh (8.32) and eighth (8.35).
• Clara Tuti in the women's 60m hurdles preliminaries, crossed the finish line in eighth-place (9.16).
• In the men's 60m preliminaries, Ja'Warren Smith ran a career best time of 6.85, which earned him seventh-place and moved him up to fifth all-time.
• Kaiya Firor and Kelia Portis advanced to the finals in the women's 400m preliminaries. Firor finishing in second-place (57.70) and Portis coming in a few spots down in sixth-place (58.72). Additionally, that time of 58.72 for Portis is a tenth all-time mark.
• Firor and Cora Olson will represent the Mountaineers in the women's 200m preliminaries, after finishing in sixth (25.21) and seventh-place (25.60).

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES

• Western was one-place shy of earning all-conference honors in the women's distance medley relay, as the Mountaineers – Allison Beasley, Lauren Willson, Emma Kjellsen, Katie Doucette – came in third-place (12:05.95).
• The men's distance medley relay – Ryan Outler, Bryce Kizewski, Ethan Coyhis, Tyler Nord – came in fourth-place crossing the finish line in a time of 10:17.67.
• Jacob Tyburski scored in the men's 5,000m, coming in seventh-place (15:46.07).
• In the women's pole vault, Lauren Smith helped the Mountaineers score a point, coming in eighth-place with a clearance of 3.53m (11-07.00).

UP NEXT
Western will wrap up the 2023 RMAC Indoor Track and Field Championships today (Feb. 25) with the first event starting at 10 a.m.