COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  Western Colorado's men sit in third place and the women in seventh place after Friday's opening day of the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship. And each of the Mountaineer programs are setting up for a bigger second day in Saturday's final session of the two-day championships.

The men will lead with the championship final of the 60-meter hurdles, in which James Duncan will step into the starting blocks as the fourth seed following Friday's time of 8.23 seconds in his preliminary heat. He will also be chasing after the school record of 7.90 seconds.

The next event will stay on the straightaway at the Mountain Lion Field House on the campus of University of Colorado Colorado Springs as the Mountaineers' Myia Dantzler will take her fourth-fastest prelims time into the final of the women's 60-meter dash. Dantzler broke the school record in Western's recent home meet, then broke it again Friday with a blistering time of 7.49 seconds.

Kelia Portis also advanced from Friday's prelims into Saturday's finals, racing to the No. 6 seed in the women's 400 with a time of 58.42 in the prelims.

The Mountaineer men earned their largest point total from a single event in Friday's long jump final. Four Western jumpers comprised half of the scoring places, led by a third place leap of 7.34-meters (24 feet-0.75 inches) by Cullen McReynolds. Scoring in sixth, seventh and eighth place were Scott Grable (7.02 / 23-0.75), Braxton Walk (6.85 / 22-) and Tarryn Moore (6.85 / 22-5.5).

Western picked up its first point of the championship meet in Friday's first event, the men's weight throw. Logan Butterfield earned and eighth place for the Mountaineers with a best toss of 17.59m (57-8.5).

Their next points came from Max Kittsteiner in the pole vault. He cleared his opening height on his third attempt and cleared his final height of 4.77m (15-1.75) on his third attempt to earn a seventh-place finish.

The women earned their initial points of the meet late in Friday's session. The quartet of Emma Kjellsen, Portis, Lauren Willson and Allison Beasley teamed up for a third place in the women's distance medley relay, combining for an NCAA provisional time of 11 minutes, 56.96 seconds.

The men also scored a third-place finish in their DMR race. Esteban Deniz, Will Stone, Caden Peters and John Houdeshell clocked a time of 10:08.05, which was also an NCAA provisional time.

Saturday's events are scheduled for a 10:30 a.m. start for the field events and a 12 p.m. start for the running events.