PUEBLO, Colo.  The 2026 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships are set to kick off Friday, April 24, with the first of three days of competition at the Colorado State University Pueblo ThunderBowl.

Western Colorado qualified 76 participants for the championship with Friday's men's decathlon and women's heptathlon events pushing nine Mountaineers into action on the opening day of the meet.

Addisyn Sweeney and Alexander Taylor will lead Western's competitors into their respective heptathlon and decathlon competitions, with both entering the championship meet after each has posted the 10th-most points in their events during the lead up to the championship meet.

What else to look for…

SPRINTS
The Mountaineers have qualifiers in the men's and women's 100-, 200- and 400-meter events, but the highlight of those sprints for Western might come from Myia Dantzler. The Mountaineer senior is seeded third in both the women's 100 and 200, with each of her seed times already NCAA Division II provisional marks.

The men's 400m hurdles should produce a positive result for the Mountaineers with Will Stone stepping into the starting blocks with the sixth-fastest seed time.

MID DISTANCE
The 800- and 1,500-meter runs are filled with Western Colorado qualifiers. Peyton Weiss and Alissa Rall enter the women's 800 seeded third and fourth, while in the women's 1,500, Emma Kjellsen is seeded fourth with Lauren Willson seeded seventh.

Tyler Nord, seeded second, leads the Mountaineers into the men's 1,500, joined in the top eight seeds by Gable Rial in seventh and Wyatt Hoover in eighth.

The Mountaineers also look to score points in the 3,000m steeplechase races, as Jan Thewes is seeded second in the men's event and Jayda Nix is seeded eighth in the women's race.

DISTANCE
Kellen Reed, seeded fifth, and Branden Davis, eighth, are the ones to watch in the men's 5,000m run. While Western's Annaka Rudolph leads all entrants as the top seed in the women's 10,000m run.

JUMPS
The high jump events should pile up points for the Mountaineers, in both the men's and women's competitions. Brandon Kolb is tied for the top entry in the men's event, with teammate Aiden Ellebracht just behind seeded second. Kyla Wolitzky heads into the women's event as the second seed with Nykole Meshew seeded seventh.

In the other vertical jump, Brayden Jones will enter the men's pole vault as the No. 2 seed.

Seeded within the top eight of the long jump competitions are Gaby Huggins (third) in the women's and Nolan Kemper (sixth) in the men's events. In the triple jump, Emma Alford enters as the women's No. 5 seed and Shawn Carter enters the men's event seeded seventh.

THROWS
The discus competition shows one Western qualifier each seeded within the top eight of the men's and women's event. Kenyon Rook will step into the circle seeded sixth in the men and Katrina Trahan will be the No. 6 seed in the women's event.

Johanna Brown is Western's top seed in the women's shot put (fourth), and Kenyon Rook (sixth) is the Mountaineers' top seed in the men's shot.

Looking for a top-eight finish in the women's javelin will be Lindsey Osterfelt, whose qualifying throw enters the competition as the No. 6 seed in the event.

WHAT'S NEXT
The NCAA DII Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be held at Welsch Stadium in Emporia, Kansas, on May 21-23.

To qualify for the championship meet, eligible student-athletes must have achieved the provisional standard in their event, with the top 22 in individual events, top 16 in combined events (heptathlon, decathlon) and top 16 relays accepted into the competition.