GOLDEN, Colo.  The opening day of the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference outdoor track & field championships concluded Friday evening, with a pair of Western Colorado participants earning all-conference honors and several more scoring points for the Mountaineers at the Stermole Track & Field Complex at Colorado School of Mines. 

The initial points of the Day 1 session came in the men's pole vault as Max Kittsteiner finished fifth to earn a second-team All-RMAC honor. 

He passed on the opening height then cleared the next height on his second attempt. Kittsteiner then pushed over the bar on his first attempt at 4.62 meters (15 feet-1.75 inches), one of only six vaulters to do so. Though he was unable to clear the next height (4.77m), he earned fifth place over the next competitor by virtue of that successful first attempt at his final height. 

Also earning a second-team All-RMAC honor was Scott Grable in the men's long jump. 

Grable advanced from the preliminary round with a leap of 6.95m (22-9.5) on his third attempt. That jump proved to be longer than his final three attempts and earned Grable a fifth-place finish to match Kittsteiner's final placing. 

Western picked up points in both the women's and men's hammer throw events during a wet and drizzly afternoon at Stermole (that had forced the pole vault competition indoors). 

Logan Butterfield advanced out of the men's preliminary round with a throw of 54.02m (177-2.75), which held up over the final three rounds to earn a seventh-place finish. 

Rylee Blanton advanced out of the women's preliminary rounds with a second throw of 49.40 (162-0.75), then bettered that with her final throw of the competition, posting an eighth-place mark of 50.62m (164-10.5). 

Also earning an eighth-place finish for the Mountaineers was Gabi Huggins in the women's long jump. Her third attempt (5.38m, 17-7.75) got her through the preliminary rounds and she popped a leap of 5.49m (18-0.00) on her final attempt to secure the final scoring place in the competition. 

In the final women's event on Day 1, Gretchen Slattum scored a seventh-place finish in the 10,000m run, crossing the finish under the lights at Stermole with a career best time of 37 minutes, 38.13 seconds. 

Prior to Slattum's run on the oval, Western had pushed five runners from Friday preliminary rounds into championship final heats on Sunday. 

 In the opening event on the track, both Lauren Willson and Emma Kjellsen qualified for Sunday's final in the women's 1,500m run. The top four finishers of the two heats plus the next four fastest finishers advanced. Willson placed second in heat two with a time of 4:42.03, just ahead of Kjellsen who was fourth in 4:42.62. Willson's time was third fastest overall with Kjellsen posting the seventh fastest time of the two heats. 

Earning a spot in Sunday's 100m dash final was Nellie Wartanian. The top two finishers in each of the three heats plus the next two fastest times advanced into the championship final. Wartanian's time of 12.07 seconds was second in heat two and she will enter Sunday's final as the sixth seed. 

The same qualifying standards also applied to the 400m hurdles, and Western pushed two runners into their respective championship finals on Sunday. 

In the women's prelims, Kelia Portis finished third in her heat with a time of 1:03.64, a clocking that proved to be the eighth and final qualifying time to advance. 

Similarly, Will Stone's career-best time of 54.45 was third in his heat and he, too, earned the final spot in the championship final for the men's event on Sunday. 

Day 2 of the championship meet commences on Saturday with the men's triple jump at 12 p.m., the final three events of the women's heptathlon starting at 12:30 p.m., and the 200m dash prelims scheduled to start at 4 p.m.