CSM’s track and field team kicked off the 2014 portion of their schedule in Boulder this weekend at the Potts Indoor Invitational. The two-day event saw Mines athletes fiercely compete with opponents from CU, Metro State, UCCS, and Denver, and come away with some strong finishes and even a few wins including two provisionals.
The weekend’s events saw CSM’s McKenzie Zeman claim both the women’s 200- and 400-meter dash titles, while Abrianna Torres and Amanda Giles finished fourth and seventh respectively in the women’s 60-meter hurdles finals. Billy Helm grabbed fifth in the men’s 200-meter dash finals, and Oredigger runners were able to fill a significant portion of the men’s 400-meter dash lineup, including the winner Ian Rozier. Also in that race were Austin Shaffer (who finished third), Matt Drotar (fourth), Michael Lanahan (fifth), Kendrick Rhea (seventh), and Nicholas Masching (eighth). Orediggers were also able to secure three of the top four positions in the men’s 800-meter run finals with Garrett Hoch emerging victorious, Patrick Weaver finishing second, and Kodi Burns ending in fourth.
The Mines men’s relay team prevailed in the 4×400 relay event, and four lady Orediggers made it to the women’s long jump finals (Michelle Rigsby finished third, Kayla Johnson fifth, Amanda Giles eighth, and Amber Harley ninth). Johnson, Rigsby, and Harley would later go on to take first, second, and fourth place finishes respectively in the women’s triple jump finals. Cassie Ratzlaff notched a third place finish in the women’s shot put finals, as well as finishing fourth in the women’s weight throw along with Hannah Weidman, who grabbed sixth. Ben Timmer secured the men’s pole vault title for CSM, and the men’s long jump finals saw Mines take fifth (Marc Leachman) and sixth (Kento Okamoto). Leachman went on to finish second in the men’s triple jump final, while the men’s shot put final had Jace Warren take third place and Jacob Hollister eighth. Men’s weight throw finals rounded out the competition’s events, and five Orediggers were able to place in the top ten of the event (Ryan Ewen in third, Nicolo Redfern fourth, Hollister fifth, Warren seventh, and Sam Pauling tenth).
Overall, this was a strong showing by both the men’s and women’s teams, and both teams will look to ride the momentum they have gained into next weekend’s invitational at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. That three-day event kicks off at 1pm on Thursday, January 23rd, and continues on Friday the 24th at 9am and wraps up on Saturday the 25th beginning at 10am.
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