AZUSA/LA VERNE, Calif.  The distance group of Western Colorado's track & field program on Friday finished off their stay in Southern California where they were competing at both the Bryan Clay Invitational and the Leopard Invitational.

The Mountaineers piled up eight career bests at the University of La Verne's Leopard meet, seven of which came in the 5,000-meter run with the other career mark coming from Gretchen Slattum in the women's 1,500m run.

Slattum finished fourth overall in the event with new career-best clocking of 4 minutes, 43.11 seconds.

In the same heat was teammate Peyton Weiss, who was just off a career best but crossed the finish in second place in a time, 4:39.61, that like the race winner eclipsed the Ortmayer Stadium record.

Western sent four runners to the line in the penultimate event of the Leopard on Friday night, racing under the lights in the women's 5,000.

All four Mountaineers earned top 25 finishes with career best times, led by event runner-up Haley Wood. She obliterated her previous best by 39 seconds, crossing the finish line with a new best time of 17:14.44.

Earning a top-10 finish with a new career mark was Jayda Nix, with a sixth-place time of 17:27.33.

Lacey Kunz was 15th overall with a new best time of 17:52.78, and Emma Berg posted a new career mark with a 25th-place finishing time of 18:09.63.

The first three finishers from Western in the men's 5,000 also set new PRs for the event.

Fifth-place Oliver Diaz crossed the finish in 14:20.65, followed by Branden Davis (14:32.73) in seventh and Eddie Siuda (14:34.09) in eighth.

Kyle Partin, just missing his career mark, was ninth in 14:39.01, and Jacob Tyberski (15:11.36) finished in 36th place.

Eight miles to the west, three mountaineers took to the track late Friday evening at the Bryan Clay, hosted by Azusa Pacific University.

Emma Kjellsen was the first to hear the starting gun, competing in the Invite 1,500m run. Kjellsen tied her career best time, 4:28.60, which betters the NCAA provisional time (4:30.17) and slots her into the NCAA Division II performance list in the event at 33rd.

The remaining Mountaineer duo raced in their respective Open 1,500 runs. Lauren Willson posted a time of 4:34.43 in the women's heats and John Houdeshell registered a time of 3:58.04 in the men's heats.

NEXT UP
Western will send its qualified competitors to the April 25-27 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship meet in Golden, Colo.