Photo: Scott Lemon

Results

SPEARFISH, S.D. - Colorado School of Mines swept the podium in three events and built early men's and women's team leads on the first day of the 2024 RMAC Indoor Track & Field Championships at Black Hills State.

Four RMAC Championships records fell for Mines - Hannah Miller in the women's pole vault, Zoe Baker and Loic Scomparin in the 5,000m run, and Everett Delate in the 60m hurdles - as the Orediggers struck gold in four events, with Hunter Potrykus and Aidan Bennett sharing the men's pole vault gold to join Miller, Baker, and Scomparin atop the podium. Mines took all three medals in both 5Ks and the men's pole vault. 

In all, the Orediggers collected 13 medals on Day 1 - four golds, five silvers, and four bronzes - as they took healthy team leads. The men scored 71 points from five events to lead UCCS (33.3) and CSU Pueblo (23), while the women took 80 points out of six events to be ahead of UCCS (35) and Colorado Mesa (34). 

Miller stole the show to start the day with a new RMAC and Mines all-venues women's pole vault record, winning the event with a 4.27m bar. The competition turned into a duel between Miller and Avery Herbold as the last two women standing; after each took one miss to get over 3.98m (which represented Herbold's season best and a move into the national top 15), Miller passed at 4.08m and Herbold bowed out at that height for silver. Miller cleared a Mines- and RMAC indoor-record 4.18m on her third attempt, and looked good on her first two attempts at 4.27m before making it on her final try, resetting her own all-venues personal best of 4.20m in snapping the RMAC, RMAC Championships, and Mines records with the #8 all-time performance in NCAA Division II. Behind them, Mines scored two vaulters as Ava Kowalski finished fourth at 3.68m, and Madeline Obuchowski was sixth over 3.38m; the Orediggers took a valuable 26 points from the event.

The men's pole vault was all Orediggers, with the six Mines entrants taking the top six spots for a huge 36 team points. Bennett and Potrykus both cleared 4.96m without a miss (a personal best for Bennett), but Potrykus passed at 5.06m as Bennett bowed out there. Potrykus couldn't get over 5.16m, however, and that left the two tied for the gold. Noah Kelly was the bronze medalist over 4.76m, Kai Miller and Shaney Conley tied for fourth at 4.61m, and Jackson Wray was sixth on cumulative misses at the same height. 

On the track, Baker and Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge went to the front at the start of the women's 5K and never gave up their spot, racing each other to a gold-silver finish as both ended up under the RMAC Championships record of 16:50 set in 2011. Baker crossed in 16:44.69 with Ramsey-Rutledge exactly a second behind, and Holly Moser and Grace Strongman made it a podium sweep as Moser finished third in 17:05.16 and Strongman fourth in 17:17.07 to score 29 team points in all. Ashleigh Loe closed 10th (17:56.33) with Josie Mejia 15th (18:16.45) and Callen Nash 18th (18:28.76). 

Things got even better in the men's 5K as the Orediggers swept the top five spots led by Scomparin breaking the 22-year-old RMAC Championships record of 14:18.20. Scomparin and Paul Knight pulled away at the halfway point of the race and Scomparin's kick brought him across in 14:16.37 with Knight claiming silver at 14:23.36; Duncan Fuehne, who did much of the early pacemaking, won bronze in 14:28.09, and Mines piled on the team points with Daniel Appleford in fourth (14:29.40), Dawson Gunn in fifth (14:31.12), and John O'Malley in seventh (14:37.78), taking 35 in all. Max Bonenberger was ninth in 14:44.44. 

Avery Wright won silver in a terrific pentathlon competition that came down to the wire. Wright trailed Colorado Mesa's Jordan Brockman by only two points heading into the final event, the 800m, with CMU's Katie Thomson another 11 points back of Wright. Thomson won the 800m to capture the gold, but Wright held off Brockman to claim the silver. Wright totaled 3,465 points, with her biggest haul of the day coming in the 60m hurdles where her 9.13 time earned her 883 points. She added a 1.55m high jump (679), 11.51m shot put (658), and 5.13m long jump (595) in the field before running 2:31.01 in the 800m for 680 points. Lisa Sutherland, completing her first career pentathlon, finished ninth with 2,990 points; her top event was also the hurdles in 9.39 (830), and she added a 1.55m high jump (678), 8.45m shot put (428), and 4.86m long jump (522) before running 2:42.65 (532) to finish. Her point total makes her the Mines all-time #6 pentathlon performer.

The women's distance medley relay closed Day 1 with a silver medal as Imani Fernandez-Gorbea, Aryelle Wright, Avary Catchings, and Riley McGrath ran 11:51.53. It goes in as the #5 all-time Mines performance as the Orediggers' DMR should get a chance to run again at nationals.

Lexye Wood took the bronze medal in the women's long jump, hitting a best of 5.53m on her third attempt. Wood, who will also compete in Saturday's high jump, added six points to the women's team total. The women's weight throw saw Jennifer Jarnagin set a new collegiate best of 15.82m to make it to finals and place sixth to score three team points; Kitt Rupar was 10th at 15.37m, and Abbi Gillespie 15th with a 14.64m throw. 

In track prelims, Everett Delate highlighted the early afternoon with his RMAC Championships-record 7.84 men's 60m hurdles time, and he is one of three Orediggers into Saturday's final as Rhett Cullers (8.36) and Coulton Chan (8.37) qualified eighth and ninth, respectively, with a new PR for Cullers. Mines had three freshmen in the women's 60m hurdle prelims led by Andrea Walser, who placed 10th in 9.30 seconds, with Aani Hardesty 15th at 9.35 and Lisa Sutherland, competing in the middle of her pentathlon, taking 17th in 9.40. Avery Wright, also while in the middle of the pentathlon, ran 7.75 seconds in the 60m dash prelims to qualify for Saturday's final.

Allison Comer and Aani Hardesty will score for Mines in the 400m, with Comer placing seventh (58.06) and Hardesty eighth (58.31) in prelims to advance to the finals, while Grace Galvin was 10th in 58.51 and Randi Higashi 11th (58.59). 

Saturday's second and final day begins at 10 a.m. with the women's high jump and triple jump. As they try to hold off sprint-heavy UCCS and Colorado Mesa squads, Mines' biggest point-scoring depth tomorrow will come in the men's and women's 3,000m run and the men's mile, as well as from highly-seeded individuals in numerous other events.