FINAL RESULTS

COLORADO SPRINGS – The Colorado School of Mines Men's and Women's Track & Field teams crowned five champions on Saturday as the women rolled to a historic second-place finish and the men claimed silver as well inside Mountain Lion Fieldhouse on the campus of UCCS.

Mines' gold medalists included Connor McLean in the heptathlon, Grant Redmond in the men's high jump, Arvid Veidmark IV in the men's shot put, Zoe Baker in the women's 3,000-meter run and the men's 4x400-meter relay team of Gavin Webster, Hayden Sather, Joe Whitney and Kevin Thompson. It brought the Orediggers' gold-medal count to six on the weekend thanks to Jake Pinkston's first-place finish in the pole vault on Friday. To cap it all off, the women's second-place finish marked the highest placing as a team in program history as Mines knocked off loaded teams including nationally-ranked programs in Adams State and CSU-Pueblo.
 
Veidmark IV started the run of individual champions by throwing the shot 16.91 meters (55-5.75) which was nearly half a meter further then the silver medalist from Western Colorado. Redmond continued the streak in a breakout high jump performance. The true freshman cleared 2.11 meters (6-11.0) to tie the program record and provisionally qualify for the national meet with the #8 jump in the nation. Connor McLean's heptathlon finish came next in record-setting fashion. The redshirt senior's score of 5,481 broke the RMAC record and gave him victory by over 200 points in addition to taking down a former national champion in the event. Zoe Baker came next in the 3,000-meter run, posting a raw time of 10:05.14 and finishing four seconds in front of the next finisher from Adams State. With conversions for altitude, Baker's time should rank inside the top-15 in the nation. Mines' men capped the first-place finishes in the 4x400-meter run thanks to a time of 3:20.34, edging CSU-Pueblo by .63 seconds.
 
However, the Orediggers did more than collect gold medals. On the final day alone, Mines came away with five other podium appearances including three silvers and two bronze. That charge was led by the women's 4x400-meter relay team of Aryelle Wright, Allee Beach, Randi Higashi and Miranda Manfre. The quartet shattered the program record in a time of 3:56.73 to take second place by nearly a full second. It marked the second time this season Mines saw the record fall. Jake Mitchem provided a second silver medal for the Orediggers in a thrilling 3,000-meter run. The difference between first and second proved to be .02 seconds as Mitchem ran 8:30.29 and Marcelo Laguera of CSU-Pueblo ran 8:30.27. Kathleen Tomon provided the third second-place finish with an impressive heave of 14.08 meters (46-2.5) in the shot put. Teammate Courtney Clark was right behind in third place thanks to her mark of 13.69 meters (44-11.0). True freshman Randi Higashi accounted for the final podium appearance after running 58.86 in the 400 meters to take third place. Thanks to her role on the 4x400 relay, Higashi came away with two medals in her first RMAC Championships.
 
The final team standings were identical at the top on both sides as host UCCS swept the titles behind 157.66 points for the men and 158.5 points for the women. Mines claimed second thanks to 105 points from the men and 93.5 points from the women. It was CSU-Pueblo taking home bronze on the men's side and Adams State doing the same for the women. Full results and standings are available at the link above or on the track & field schedule page at www.minesathletics.com.
 
Mines now awaits selections for the 2020 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships to be held in Birmingham, Ala., March 13-14. All national meet information will be available at www.minesathletics.com once it is released.