KEARNEY, Neb. – The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs finished the final day of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships Saturday with seven school records, five all-RMAC performances and several personal records.
The Mountain Lions set school records in the men’s heptathlon (Carl Lum), the women’s pentathlon (Josi Heer), the women’s 400-meter dash (Jessica Hudson twice), the women’s 4 X 400 relay, the weight throw (Jennifer Callan) and for total points scored by the women’s team in a conference championship meet (43).
Shannon Payne earned All-RMAC honors in two events, the 3,000 and the 5,000 meters. The other all-conference performers were Heer (pentathlon), Hudson (400 meters) and Melissa McKinley (800 meters).
“There were a lot of positives,” said UCCS coach Mark Misch. “We couldn’t have asked any more of our kids.”
There were also so many personal records that Misch said he wouldn’t know the exact number until he had time to sit down and look over his lists.
“We had somewhere between 15-20 PRs,” said Misch.
One reason there were, and will continue to be, so many personal records is that the Mountain Lions are an extraordinarily young team. Thirteen of the 18 male athletes and 13 of the 16 female athletes on the team are freshmen or sophomores.
One who’s not, though, is Payne. The junior followed her national qualifying time in Friday’s 5,000 meters with a dominant win in Saturday’s 3,000 meters. Running her first 3,000 in over a year as she recovers from injury, Payne was seeded in a slower heat. Even though she had nobody to pace her, Payne not only blew away her heat, she records a time of 10 minutes, 18.10 seconds, 12.54 seconds better that her nearest competitor.
Since the 3,000 is not run at nationals, Payne could not earn a qualifying time in that event.
“We’re bringing her along slowly,” said Misch of Payne, the Mountain Lions lone returning All-American. “I’d say she’s at about 90 percent right now.”
Having already set a school record in the preliminaries of the 400 on Friday, Hudson broke it again in Saturday’s finals, covering the distance in one minute even for third place overall.
William Pendarvis took eighth place in the men’s 400 final and was less than a half second away from being All-RMAC. It was the first time UCCS had a finalist in both the men’s and women’s 400.
McKinley took fifth in the 800 with a time of 2:23.56. She was the top freshman finisher in the race. Teammate Kirstin Knobbe took 14th.
Joining Payne in the 3,000 were Kaitlyn Frier (seventh), Alicia Del Pardo (eighth) and Vivian Reed (14th).
Alex Vazquez took sixth in the men’s 800 with a time of 1:55.60, which was less than a half second away from third in the tightly bunched field. Teammate Dan Pinter was 11th and Chris Reynolds was 14th.
In the 4 X 400 relay, the UCCS women took fifth in the nine-team field while the UCCS men finished sixth.
--This story was sent to FOX 21 News as a general press release from the Athletic Departments of their respective institutions--
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKXRM