Results

VIRGINIA BEACH - National championships for Hannah Miller and Dillon Powell provided the perfect start for Colorado School of Mines at the 2023 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

Miller turned in one of the finest performances of her career to capture the women's pole vault title, while Powell cemented his status as one of the division's all-time greatest distance runners with a championship in his third consecutive season, this time in the 5,000m.

Mines' women are tied for first with 20 points after six events scored; the men are tied for second with 10 points after four events. 

Mines had 10 competitors earn all-America status on Friday - four first-team, six second-team. The women's distance medley relay and Zoe Baker in the 5,000m also scored fourth-place finishes to add first-team all-America finishes to the Orediggers' day. Mines also had six second-team all-America performances as Lexye Wood was ninth in the long jump, Duncan Fuehne ninth in the 5K, Molly Maksin ninth in the 5K, Avery Herbold 11th in the pole vault, Tim Thompson 11th in the 800m, and Everett Delate 12th in the 60m hurdles to secure their status.

Luke Julian (mile) and Aryelle Wright (800m) moved through to Saturday finals, as well, Wright doing so in a program-record time.

Miller's championship is the first by an Oredigger woman since 2004 when Hannah Davey won the steeplechase, and the first ever at the indoor national meet. Miller cruised through her first five bars without a miss, clearing 4.15m (just a centimeter off her program record and season best) to hold the advantage with the competition down to three competitors. MSU-Moorhead's Ashley Hokanson also cleared 4.15m but Central Missouri's Madi Wulfekotter missed two attempts and then a third at 4.20m; that left just Miller and Hokanson, and each missed all three tries at 4.20m, handing Miller the title with two fewer overall misses. 

Powell led gun to tape, pulling out to an early lead that was eventually pulled back in before he stretched the field with five laps to go and won going away in 13:48.13. Powell adds the trophy to his collection that already included the 2022 outdoor 10K and cross country titles, and a silver medal in last year's indoor 5K. It was a history-making win for Powell, who ties former middle-distance star Mack McLain as the only other three-time national champion in any sport at Mines. 

Mines was deep in the 5K as Baker ran 16:22.79 for fourth - her 11th career all-America honor - nd Molly Maksin and Duncan Fuehne each added ninth-place finishes; Maksin did plenty of pacemaking for the second pack and closed in 16:33.35, while Fuehne outran his seed to close ninth in 14:15.31. Jenna Ramsey was 14th in 16:55.30. 

The DMR closed the night with the Orediggers' first women's relay podium finish since 2010 as the combo of Alex Raichart, Amena Nelson, Mackenzie Duck, and Clare Peters smashed the program record of 11:39 in 11:30.38. The previous program best had stood since 2006.

In field finals, Lexye Wood advanced to finals in the long jump and finished ninth, jumping 5.87m on her first attempt as she made her indoors debut in the event. Avery Herbold came in 11th in the pole vault clearing 3.80m.

In prelims, Aryelle Wright reset her 800m program record for the second time this season, qualifying second in 2:08.30. Luke Julian ran 4:07.44 to qualify second in the mile, controlling and winning his heat to move to Saturday's final. Tim Thompson ran a season-best 1:53.38 to finish 11th in the men's 800m. Everett Delate ran 8.06 in the 60m hurdles, just missing out on finals but earning Second-Team all-America in 12th.