GOLDEN, Colo.  The Western Colorado track & field program on Saturday put the closing touches on a split-squad weekend, finishing out two-day meets at Colorado School of Mines and at West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas. 

The majority of the Mountaineer men's and women's team participated in Mines' annual Kit Mayer Classic, while a group consisting mostly of the sprinters were in Texas at the Jo Meaker Classic. 

Highlights from the Jo Meaker include: 

• James Duncan posted a career-best time of 14.61 seconds to take ninth place in the 110-meter hurdles. Duncan would also post a career-best time in the 400 hurdles (55.90) in replicating a ninth-place finish 
• Also setting a new personal best in the 400 hurdles was Will Stone, whose time of 55.55 earned a seventh-place finish 
• In the women's 400 hurdles, Kelia Portis raced to eighth place with a time of 1 minute, 4.29 seconds. Portis also claimed 14th place in the 100m hurdles with a time of 15.40 
• In that same 100 hurdles event, Western's Clara Tuti posted a career-best time of15.25 to take 13th place 
• Tripling up at the Meaker was Gabi Huggins. She was eighth in the women's long jump with a leap of 5.49 meters, 41st in the 200m dash (25.97), and 46th in the 100m dash (12.59) 
• Posting career marks in two events was Nellie Wartanian. She was 11th in the 100, with a time of 11.79, and 16th in the 200 with a new personal best of 24.56 

Highlights from the Kit Mayer include: 

• A strong Western showing in the high jump events. Nykole Meshew tied for fourth place in the women's event, clearing a height of 1.65 meters (5 feet-5 inches), while teammate Sammie Bretz took fifth at the same height – the difference being Meshew clearing her final height on her first attempt while Bretz did so on her second attempt. In the men's event, Torrin Franklin finished in seventh place after clearing 1.80m (5-10.75) 
• The long jump was also a solid event for the Mountaineers. Scott Grable landed a leap of 6.88m (22-7) to take fourth place, with Tarryn Moore (6.45m / 21-2) placing ninth. Emma Alford landed a 10th-place jump of 5.23m (17-2) in the women's event 
• Charlotte Heberlie earned Western's top placing in the shot put, taking 10th with a best toss of 10.84m (35-6.75) 
• On the oval, Emma Kjellsen earned an 11th-place finish in the women's 800m run, registering a time of 2:18.31 
• A pair of Mountaineers earned top-10 spots in the women's heptathlon. Lindsey Osterfelt accumulated 3,712 points to take eighth, and Kendall Morrison was ninth with 3,552 points 

UP NEXT 
Western will take its distance runners to California for the weekend. Some members of the group will compete in the Bryan Clay Invitational hosted by Azusa Pacific University on April 16-18, while the remainder of the distance group will participate eight miles to the east in the April 17-18 University of La Verne Leopard Invitational.