Thursday Results

ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Colorado School of Mines Men's and Women's Track & Field teams opened the 2021 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday with four First-Team All-Americans at the GVSU Track & Field Stadium.
 
Redshirt freshman Hannah Miller was first on the board for the Orediggers with a historic performance in the pole vault. All of Miller's clearances came on the first attempt as she reached 4.05 meters (13-3.5) to tie for fourth in the nation. She became the first woman pole vaulter from Mines to ever step on the national podium while giving the Oredigger women 4.5 points in the team standings. It also marked Miller's first-ever appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
 
Oredigger veterans Dylan Ko and Kyle Moran scored next in the men's 10,000-meter run. Ko made a massive push over the final two miles of the race to finish third in the country and take national bronze. His final pace of 29:13.97 shattered the program record by nearly 13 seconds. If not for his teammate, Moran would have had the program record as he raced to sixth place in the nation at a clip of 29:18.33. Both Orediggers topped the previous record holder Joel Hamilton who was First-Team All-America three times in the 10K and earned 11 total all-America awards which ranks second in Mines' history. Hamilton's best 10K time was 29:26.83 which he ran at the national meet in 2008. Additionally, Ko's third-place finish matched the best NCAA finish of any Oredigger in the 10K. Hamilton finished third in the nation twice in his career and Phil Schneider also took bronze in 2015. Ko's and Moran's performance provided Mines' men nine points in the team standings.
 
Baker closed day one of the NCAA Championships with her own historic run in the women's 10,000 meters. Racing as a redshirt freshman in her first appearance at the outdoor championships, Baker finished seventh in the nation with a time of 34:15.28. That time destroyed the previous record of 35:48.13 by more 92 seconds and made Baker the first Oredigger woman to ever step on the national podium in the 10K. The Longmont, Colo., native entered the raced ranked 10th in the nation meaning she outran three women with faster seed times including the third and fourth-ranked 10K runners from the 2021 season to score two points for Mines in the team standings.
 
Connor McLean and Hayden Sather also competed for the Orediggers on Thursday. That duo opened the day in the decathlon with McLean putting up 3,614 points through five events and Sather scoring 3,613 in the same span. McLean enters the final day of the decathlon ranked 10th in the standings while Sather sits 11th. McLean's biggest points in the first five events came with an 11.30-second 100-meter dash. Sather also scored big in the 100 meters, but scored bigger in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.52.
 
Mines starts day two of the championships with the men sitting sixth in the team standings and the women slotted 11th. Action on Friday begins at 7 a.m. (MT) with McLean and Sather back at it in the decathlon. Grant Redmond, Jake Mitchem and Aryelle Wright are also slated to compete. Live results, live video and the full schedule can be found at www.minesathletics.com.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines track & field on Twitter and Instagram at @csmtrack. You can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.