GOLDEN – The Colorado School of Mines outdoor track and field teams made the most of their final qualifying opportunity before the national championships, combining for five NCAA Provisional requirements and three wins Sunday at the CSM Last Chance Qualifier in Golden.
Sophomore Ben Timmer and senior Cody Walega provisionally qualified in the pole vault with a height of 15-10.00 (4.83 meters), finishing first and third, respectively.
Runner-up at the RMAC Championships with a school-record of 16-03.25 (4.96 meters), Timmer has surpassed the outdoor Provisional requirement in six of eight meets, while Walega, an All-RMAC Second Teamer, bettered his personal-record by 9.5 inches for his first Provisional and the program's No. 2 height all-time.
Junior Seun Ogunmodede earned his first Provisional and second win in the high jump, taking first with a leap of 6-10.25 (2.09 meters), 0.25 inches shy of the Mines record and tied for No. 1 in the RMAC and No. 14 in Division II. He also placed second in the triple jump with a mark of 46-00.00 (14.02 meters).
A two-time Second Team All-RMAC finisher at the conference meet, senior Hannah Schuster collected her third Provisional in the 1500 in as many meets, crossing third out of 10 in 4:39.81. Classmate Russell Drummond won the men's race with a Provisional time of 3:56.65, eight-best in the conference, and red-shirt freshman Drew Kerschieter claimed fifth in 4:03.05.
Senior Tyler Curtis, junior Andrew Epperson and red-shirt freshman Marty Andrie claimed 2-3-4 in the 1500 behind respective times of 15:12.09, 15:21.73 and 15:40.36. Senior Rick Davey was sixth in 16:19.23.
Junior RMAC triple jump champion Kayla Johnson amassed three top-five efforts, staking third in the 400 hurdles (1:05.42), fourth in the triple jump (36-05.00; 11.10 meters) and fifth in the long jump (16-11.25; 5.16 meters).
Freshmen Ian Rozier and McKenzie Zeman notched fourth-place results in the men's and women's 100 in 11.54 and 13.16. Zeman's time is the second-fastest by an Oredigger this season and fourth-fastest in the school record book.
The official qualifications announcement for the national meet will be released by the NCAA on May 14. The NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships take place the weekend of May 23-25 in Pueblo, Colorado at the Neta & Eddie DeRose Thunderbowl on the campus of CSU-Pueblo.
