GRAND JUNCTIONS, Colo. Western Colorado outdoor track & field on Thursday finished off the opening day of the Maverick Invite #2 with a few Mountaineers posting career-best marks.
Colorado Mesa University is hosting the meet at its CMU Track & Field Complex.
Logan Butterfield and
Anthony Avila placed second and third, respectively, in the men's hammer throw, each recording career bests in the event.
Butterfield's fourth toss went 56.36 meters (184 feet-11 inches) and Avila's fifth attempt went 49.00m (160-9) to earn their top-three finishes. Already second on Western's all-time list in the event, Butterfield improved that mark as he continues to shoot for the top spot.
A pair of Mountaineers raced to career bests in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Thursday's first event on the track.
Jayda Nix placed fourth in the women's race in a time of 11 minutes, 15.23 seconds, and
Joseph Houdeshell tied his career best in the men's race with his fourth-place time of 9:58.96.
The day's other race on the oval, the 5,000m run, also produced a few career bests.
Mountaineer women ran to a sweep of fourth through seventh place, with two of those runners hitting personal bests while the other two were fewer than four seconds off their career marks.
Haley Wood's fifth-place 17:53.08 and
Lacey Kunz' seventh-place 18:19.57 were personal records. Fourth place
Gretchen Slattum (17:23.02) was less than four seconds off her career best time, and
Emma Berg (sixth, 18:19.50) was less than two seconds off her best time.
In the men's 5,000,
Oliver Diaz won the event with a time of 14:48.91 – second fastest in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference so far this outdoor season – while
Kyle Partin (14:53.70) was second with the third-fastest 5,000 in the RMAC.
The pole vault and long jump events provided top finishes by Western competitors.
Aaleiah Porter-Gyll and
Sophie Varela went 1-2 in the women's pole vault, as both cleared a height of 3.15m (10-4.00) with Varela taking second on one extra miss during the competition.
The men's event saw Western taking second through fifth place, led by
Max Kittsteiner (4.40m / 14-5.25).
Robert Letsche (4.10m / 13-5.5) was third, tied with
Jake Gash who cleared a career-best height, and
Ben Ford (3.80m / 12-5.5) in fifth.
Gabi Huggins won the women's long jump with a best leap of 5.63m (18-5.75), just 3/4ths of an inch off her career best, while teammate
Emma Alford (5.16m / 16-11.25) placed fifth.
Tarryn Moore (6.33m / 20-9.25) added a third place for the Mountaineers in the men's long jump.
Also picking up a third place for Western was
Rylee Blanton in the women's hammer. On her final throw of the competition she popped a 48.67m (160-0) to move up one spot in the final standings.
NEXT UP
The Invitational finishes up on Friday. Field events kick off the day beginning at 10:30 a.m., with the events on the track commencing at 12 p.m.
