The Western Colorado University track and field teams put the finishing touches on a split-squad weekend on April 12. The Mountaineers finished off two-day meets at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden and West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas.
The majority of the Mountaineer men's and women's team participated in Mines' annual Kit Mayer Classic, while a group of sprinters competed at the Jo Meaker Classic in Texas.
In Texas, James Duncan posted a career-best time of 14.61 seconds to take ninth place in the 110-meter hurdles. Duncan also posted a career-best time in the 400 hurdles, earning another ninth-place finish. Will Stone also achieved a PR in the 400 hurdles with a seventh-place time of 55.55.
In the women's 400 hurdles, Kelia Portis raced to eighth place with a time of 1 minute, 4.29 seconds. Portis also claimed 14th place in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.40. In the same event, Western's Clara Tuti posted a career-best time of 15.25 to take 13th.
Gabi Huggins brought three honors back to Gunnison. She finished eighth in the women's long jump with a leap of 5.49 meters, 41st in the 200-meter dash and 46th in the 100-meter dash.
Nellie Wartanian posted career marks in two events. She took 11th in the 100, with a time of 11.79, and 16th in the 200 with a new personal best of 24.56.
A strong Western showing in the high jump events highlighted the Mountaineers performances in Golden. Nykole Meshew tied for fourth place in the women's event, clearing a height of 1.65 meters, while teammate Sammie Bretz took fifth at the same height. .Meshew cleared her final height on her first attempt, while Bretz did so on her second. In the men's event, Torrin Franklin finished in seventh place after clearing 1.80 meters.
The Mountaineers also excelled at the long jump. Scott Grable landed a leap of 6.88 meters to take fourth place, and Tarryn Moore placed ninth. Emma Alford landed a 10th-place jump of 5.23 meters in the women's event.
A pair of Mountaineers polished off Western’s performance, earning top-10 spots in the women's heptathlon. Lindsey Osterfelt accumulated 3,712 points to take eighth, and Kendall Morrison was ninth with 3,552 points.
This weekend, a crew of distance runners will travel to California. Some members of the group will compete in the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University April 16-18. The remainder of the distance group will participate eight miles to the east at the University of La Verne Leopard Invitational April 17-18.
(Gregg Petcoff is the assistant athletics director for communications at Western Colorado University and can be reached at gpetcoff@western.edu.)
(Courtesy Western Colorado University Athletics Communications)
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