The Western Colorado University distance crew polished off their trip to southern California at the Bryan Clay Invitational and the Leopard Invitational on April 18.
The Mountaineers piled up eight career bests at the University of La Verne's Leopard Meet. Seven of these came in the 5000-meter run with the other career mark coming from Gretchen Slattum in the women's 1500.
Slattum finished fourth overall in the event with a new PR time of 4 minutes, 43.11 seconds. In the same heat was teammate Peyton Weiss, who was just off a personal best. She crossed the finish in second place in a time of 4:39.61, which also eclipsed the Ortmayer Stadium record.
Western sent four runners racing under the lights in the women's 5000, to the line in the penultimate event of the Leopard on Friday night. Led by event runner-up Haley Wood, all four Mountaineers earned top-25 finishes with career best times. Wood obliterated her previous best by 39 seconds, crossing the finish line with a new PR of 17:14.44. Jayda Nix earned a top-10 finish with a new career mark with a sixth-place time of 17:27.33. Lacey Kunz took 15th overall with a new best of 17:52.78 and Emma Berg posted a new career mark with a 25th-place finishing time of 18:09.63.
In the men’s 5000, fifth-place Oliver Diaz crossed the finish line in 14:20.65, followed by Branden Davis in seventh and Eddie Siuda in eighth. Kyle Partin, just missing his career mark, came in ninth in 14:39.01 and Jacob Tyberski finished 36th.
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 take the starting line, competing in the 1500-meter run. Kjellsen tied her PR time of 4:28.60, which slots her into the NCAA Division II performance list in the event at 33rd. 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 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship meet in Golden April 25-27.
(Gregg Petcoff is the assistant athletics director for communications at Western Colorado University and can be reached at gpetcoff@western.edu.)
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here