Mines Mini-Meet
at Stermole Track, Friday, 9 a.m. [Live Results/Entries] [Schedule]

Payton Jordan Invitational
at Stanford, Friday, 8:05 p.m. PT [Schedule] [Live Results] [FloTrack]

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OREDIGGERS HOST MINI-MEET, SEND DISTANCE RUNNERS TO STANFORD
With one week left before the RMAC Championships, Colorado School of Mines will welcome in most of their conference rivals to Stermole Track for the Mines Mini-Meet on Friday. Previously scheduled to be a two-day meet, the forecast for bad weather has condensed it to a one-day meet starting at 9 a.m. and continuing through the day. Meanwhile, a trio of Oredigger distance specialists heads to Stanford's Payton Jordan Invitational Friday night looking for elite times in the 5K and 10K.

FAN INFO
Fans coming to the Mines Mini-Meet should be aware that they must pay for on-campus parking during the day on Friday; follow the signs in the lot for details on paying. Admission to the meet is free. Fans coming to watch the pole vault should head to Steinhauer Fieldhouse, as the forecast for a windy afternoon has pushed it indoors for safety; high jump may also go inside should conditions warrant it. 

LIVE COVERAGE
The Mines Mini-Meet will have live results available at minesathletics.com/tracklive. The Payton Jordan Invitational has live results and streaming video for FloTrack subscribers.

THE MINES MINI-MEET
The condensed one-day format will start at 9 a.m. Friday with a distance session on the track that includes the 10K, 5K, steeplechaser, and 1500m. Mid-day will see a selection of field events take place with the high jump, pole vault, long jump, hammer, and shot put, and then a late afternoon sprints session will be on the track including both hurdles distances, the 800m, 4x100m, 400m, and 200m. The distance session will see a large number of Oredigger entrants going for national qualifying times in one of their last shots before May, with both 10Ks, both steeplechases, both 1500s, and the women's 5K holding promise for Mines. 

THE PAYTON JORDAN INVITATIONAL
Three Orediggers head back to Stanford looking for big times as Luke Julian and Loic Scomparin will run the 5,000m (8:05 p.m. PT) and Dillon Powell is set for the 10,000m (9:25 p.m. PT). For Julian and Scomparin, who ran the 1500m in their season debuts last week, it'll be a chance to secure NCAA times in a second event. For Powell, who already owns the nation's #1 5K time, a 10K qualification time will give him a chance to defend his 2022 NCAA title in the event. The only D-II entrant in an elite group of runners that includes two of the top four finishers in the NCAA Division I 10K final last year, Powell will hope to be able to attack the long-standing NCAA Division II record of 27:48.06 with a fast pace in the race.

RECORDS FALL IN CALIFORNIA, COLORADO
Last weekend was a great one for the Orediggers as a combined six program records went down between the Bryan Clay Invitational and the Maverick Invite & Multi. In California, five records fell including the oldest track record dating back to 1986, the 110m hurdles, as Everett Delate ran 13.99. Luke Julian snapped the 1,500m record that had stood since 2011 in a time of 3:41.84, while Aryelle Wright had a hand in two new standards resetting her 800m time at 2:07.83 and then anchoring the 4x400 relay's new record of 3:44.45 along with Amena Nelson, Grace Galvin, and Mackenzie Duck. Zoe Baker reclaimed the 5,000m record in 16:07.72, nearly 17 seconds under Clare Peters' mark set just a few weeks ago. In Grand Junction, it was freshman Avery Wright setting a new program heptathlon record at 4,900 in her first attempt at the multi-event, setting numerous personal bests along the way. 

JULIAN EARNS RMAC HONOR
Luke Julian's performance at the Bryan Clay Invitational earned him the RMAC Track Athlete of the Week award on Wednesday. Julian ran the fastest raw-time 1500m in the RMAC since 2015 as he broke the Mines record in the event. It was the fourth career RMAC weekly award for Julian.

IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Both teams slipped slightly in the newest USTFCCCA national ratings index as the men dropped one spot to #13 and the women four spots to #11. That was despite numerous national marks set last weekend including Luke Julian's NCAA-#2 and Loic Scomparin's #15 times in the 1500m, Aryelle Wright's #5 time in the 800m, Zoe Baker's #3 mark in the 5K, and the #7 women's 4x400. 

BAKER LEADS RMAC INDOOR ACADEMIC TEAMS
Academic Athlete of the Year Zoe Baker led a conference-best eight First-Team Academic All-RMAC honorees for Colorado School of Mines indoor track & field in the conference's annual year-end academic honors announced earlier this month. Everett Delate, Hunter Potrykus, Dillon Powell, Grant Redmond, and Loic Scomparin took up half of the ten men's First-Team Academic All-RMAC slots, while Baker, Hannah Miller, and Lexye Wood earned honors on the women's side. In addition to the first-teamers, Mines had 36 student-athletes - 18 men and 18 women - earn RMAC Academic Honor Roll status, and the 44 total Oredigger honorees are the most in the conference. Baker's Academic Athlete of the Year award marks an incredible seven career honors for her between cross country, indoor, and outdoor seasons, including three straight years indoors.

BERESFORD ELECTED TO RMAC HALL OF FAME
In late March, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference announced that former Oredigger distance standout Heather Beresford would be a member of its 2023 Hall of Fame class. A nine-time all-American at Mines, Beresford was the program's first-ever women's cross country all-American and earned three NCAA medals on the track; she still owns the indoor mile and outdoor 1,500m records nearly 20 years later. Beresford was also a 2019 inductee to the Mines Athletics Hall of Fame. 

IN THE RMAC POLL
The Mines women were picked first and the men second in the RMAC's outdoor track & field polls announced in late March. The women, coming off their first-ever indoor conference championship and an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, earned eight first-place votes and 163 overall points to top the poll ahead of UCCS (155, 3 first) and Adams State (147, 3 first). The men, ready to push for conference and national championships after finishing 14th at NCAA Indoors, earned 127 points and three first-place nods to trail UCCS (138, 7 first) and lead Adams State (122, 2 first). 

LOOKING AHEAD
The RMAC Championships at Chadron State are set for April 28-29.