by Delaney Letts

Colorado Mesa University’s Track and Field team is in full sprint, finishing up their indoor season and awaiting the outdoor season. This year there are a little under 100 Maverick track and field athletes. This past weekend, a select number of men and women from the Maverick’s team competed both Friday and Saturday at the Colorado School of Mines Division II Invite in Golden, Colorado.

Coach Brian Beeman, in his second year of coaching this year at CMU, said they were using this meet for the purpose of giving athletes working their way towards nationals with some additional marks, and also for the distance medley relay (DMR) and multi-athletes another chance to compete (given that only a couple of meets offer their specialties events.)
The Mavericks placed very well. Nolan Ellis placed second in the men’s pole vault with a mark of 4.96m (16′ 31/4), earning the team eight points. Vernon Jackson placed fourth in the men’s long jump at 7.00m (22’11 3/4) in his sixth round, scoring five points for the team. Also helping out the team, Trevor Jensen placed second in the men’s weight throw, and third in the men’s shot put. His best throws were 17.21m (56’5 3/4) in the weight throw and 15.65m (51’4 1/2) in the shot put—earning the team 14 points between the two events. Ellis and Jensen added their names to the provisional qualifier list with their performances.
In the men’s heptathlon (which includes a 60-meter sprint, long jump, high jump, shot put, 60-meter hurdles, pole vault, and the 1000-meter run), D’Angelo Foster dominated placing first overall with a total of 5036 points for the Mavericks and ten team points. In the men’s 4000-meter DMR, Nathan Oglesby, Marc Garcia, Michael Fera, and Makoto Watanabe finished sixth with a time of 10:52.09, earning 4 points. Foster’s heptathlon score helped him join Ellis and Jensen as a provisional qualifier for nationals.
   As for the women, Mekayla Winchester placed third with a time of 7.93 in the 60m, scoring 6 points. In the 3000-meter, Alexia Chapman finished sixth with a time of 10:32.67 earning 3 points. Then, Mekayla Winchester placed third in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.97 gaining 6 points. In the women’s 4000-meter DMR, Ashlyn Brent, Ally Tapp, Heidi Weber and Alexia Chapman finished sixth with a time of 13:01.24, earning 4 points. In the women’s pentathlon (which includes 60m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, and an 800-meter run), Erika White took sixth place with a total of 2869 overall points and 3 team points.
Overall, the men’s team finished sixth with 44 points, and the women eighth with 22 points. Beeman said his only expectation for his team going into the meet was to have fun.

“When we have fun while competing, good things happen,” Beeman said. “We are using the indoor season as a training competition tool for outdoor season. We aren’t putting a huge emphasis on indoor, but what it will allow us to do is be more ready for outdoor and ready for May which is our ultimate goal to win conference champions.”
Quickly approaching, Beeman is looking forward to outdoor season and for his team to show RMAC what they can do. “Last year the mentality wasn’t quite there, but this year everybody is on board, and I truly believe that we have a talented team that can battle with the best of them.”