David Hemery Valentine Invite
Friday/Saturday - hosted by Boston University [FloSports] [Live Results] [Schedule] 

Gorilla Indoor Classic
Friday/Saturday - hosted by Pitt State [MIAA Network] [Live Results] [Schedule] 

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PIVOTAL WEEKEND AHEAD FOR MINES TRACK & FIELD
As the indoor season grows short, Colorado School of Mines is set for a pivotal weekend that should produce plenty of championship opportunities as they split up to compete at Pitt State's Gorilla Indoor Classic and Boston University's David Hemery Valentine Invite. Both meets are important for the Orediggers; at Pitt State, Mines will get a chance to preview the facility hosting the 2024 NCAA Divison II Indoor Championships while competing against some of D-II's top competition, while in Boston, Mines' distance crew will run in one of the deepest meets on one of the fastest indoor tracks in the world. Both meets will have streaming pay-per-view video and live results at the links above.

LAST TIME OUT
Mines split up last weekend to compete at the Colorado Invitational in Boulder and the Big Red Machine Open in Gunnison, finding plenty of success at both. Loic Scomparin led the Orediggers' milers on Friday night in Boulder with a phenomenal run (more on that a little further down), with both Margaux Basart and Riley McGrath going sub-5:00 for the women. On Saturday in Boulder, Everett Delate and Aryelle Wright snapped program records in the 60m hurdles and 400m dash, respectively, and three Orediggers (Zoe Baker, Holly Moser, and Molly Maksin) ran NCAA-provisional 3,000m times while the women's 4x400 ran the second-fastest performance in program history at 3:51.95 and Tim Thompson hit a season-best 1:52.45 in the 800m. In Gunnison, Mines racked up field event wins including Hunter Potrykus and Hannah Miller in the pole vault, Grant Redmond and Lexye Wood in the high jump, and Brody Welch and Kitt Rupar in the shot put. Avery Wright highlighted the day on the track with Mines' fastest 60m dash since 2011, running 7.68. 

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND
Friday in Boston will belong to the women as Mines will have competitors in the 400m (Grace Galvin), 800m (Imani Fernandez-Gorbea and Aryelle Wright), mile (Riley McGrath), and 5,000m (Zoe Baker, Margaux Basart, Molly Maksin, Holly Moser, and Grace Strongman) running from morning to night on the east coast. Meanwhile in Kansas, Friday is the lighter of the two days with hurdle prelims for Everett Delate (finals Saturday), the long jump for Lexye Wood, and the 200m for Randi Higashi.

Saturday will have a packed schedule at both meets as the women's DMR kicks things off in Boston followed by Alberto Campa and Brock Drengenberg in the mile, Loic Scomparin in the 3K, and a big men's 5K contingent that includes Daniel Appleford, Dawson Gunn, Max Bonenberger, Paul Knight, Duncan Fuhene, Andrew Kaye, and John O'Malley. At Pitt State, the field events will have Wood and Grant Redmond in the invitational high jumps, while the invitational pole vaults will include Ava Kowalski, Dale Thompson, Avery Herbold, and Hannah Miller for the women and Aidan Bennett, Kai Miller, Noah Kelly, and Hunter Potrykus for the men. On the track, Higashi, Allison Comer, and Aani Hardesty run in the 400, Tim Thompson and Avary Catchings run in competitive 800m fields, and the women's 4x400 finishes things off.

IN THE POLLS
Mines made huge jumps in this week's USTFCCCA national ratings index polls, with the men moving to #5 and the women #12. The ratings index compiles teams' national marks to evaluate team strength; overall, the Mines men own 19 NCAA provisional marks, including 10 in the top 15; the women have 15 overall and nine in the top 15. 

SCOMPARIN EARNS RMAC RECOGNITION
Loic Scomparin's standout mile performance at the Colorado Invitational has earned him the RMAC Track Athlete of the Week award for the first time in his career. Scomparin ran the national #4 mile time to win the event in Boulder on Friday, running the fastest Colorado-soil mile in Mines and RMAC history in the process at 4:03.61 (which converts to 3:57.67 at sea level). Paced by teammate Alberto Campa and Mines Hall of Famer Mark Husted, Scomparin chopped more than three seconds off his own mile PR set on the same track last season. 

A RECORD-SETTING SEASON
The Orediggers have been rewriting the program record book this winter, and two more records were added last week as Everett Delate reset his 60m hurdles standard at 7.89 seconds, and Aryelle Wright ran 56.10 in the 400m. Overall, Mines athletes have broken or reset six program marks this season, including Hunter Potrykus in the pole vault (5.30m), Lexye Wood in the long jump (6.04m), Avery Wright in the 60m hurdles (8.92) and pentathlon (3,698). 

NATIONAL LIST LOOK
Mines continues to pile on NCAA provisional performances, and are in a strong position on the national performance list as they head into this weekend. Among nine marks in the D-II top 15 for the women are Aryelle Wright in the 800m (2:11.57, 10th); Zoe Baker (9:31.26, 10th) and Holly Moser (9:35.47, 13th) in the 3,000m; Hannah Miller (4.11m, 3rd), Avery Herbold (3.92m, 11th), and Dale Thompson (3.86m, 13th) in the pole vault; Lexye Wood in the long jump (6.04m, 7th); Avery Wright in the pentathlon (3,729 points, 12th); and the distance medley relay (11:32.84, 2nd). The men hold 11 top-15 performances led by Loic Scomparin, who holds the #2 3K (7:56), #2 5K (13:29.35), and #4 mile (3:57.67) times; Alberto Campa (4:00.21, 6th) and Brock Drengenberg (4:01.16, 9th) are also top-10 in the mile; Everett Delate in the 60m hurdles (7.97, 8th); Hunter Potrykus (5.30m, 3rd) in the pole vault; and five men in the 3K including Scomparin along with Duncan Fuehne (7:59.26, 7th), Paul Knight (8:02.66, 10th), John O'Malley (8:03.29, 11th), and Dawson Gunn (8:04.85, 13th). All marks are altitude and track-size converted.

SCHNEIDERMAN COMPETES AT THE US OLYMPIC MARATHON TRIALS
Oredigger alumnus Ben Schneiderman ran in the US Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando last Saturday, finishing 45thout of 150 runners in 2:18:32. Schneiderman, an all-American in cross country and the 10K and a two-time cross country team national champion at Mines, qualified via a 2:16:22 time at the 2022 California International Marathon, and also was the winner of the 2023 Boulderthon Marathon and 2023 Bolder Boulder 10K, along with top-30 finishes in the 2022 Boston Marathon and 2021 Chicago Marathon. 

MILLER NAMED COLORADO'S BEST
Last week, Mines vaulter Hannah Miller earned the prestigious Colorado Sportswoman of the Year Award in collegiate track & field, recognizing her as the Centennial State's best in calendar-year 2023. Miller stood out for her incredible year that included the NCAA Division II indoor pole vault national championship and the outdoor national silver medal. Mines' Female Athlete of the Year, Miller earned USTFCCCA First-Team All-America honors in both seasons, was a First-Team Academic All-American, and was the RMAC Field Athlete of the Year indoors. She broke the program and RMAC indoor pole vault record at 4.16m, and had an outdoor best of 4.17m. Her national title was the first for Mines women's track & field since 2004 as she cleared five bars without a miss in Virginia Beach. 

GETTING THAT SILVER
Six current and former Mines cross country and track & field student-athletes earned degrees at the university's winter commencement on Dec. 15, earning their silver diplomas. Current team members Max Bonenberger (B.S., chemical engineering), Matt Mettler (B.S., chemical engineering), Everett Delate (B.S., economics), and Hannah Miller (B.S., quantitative biosciences & engineering) earned their undergraduate degrees, while team alumni Clare Peters (M.S., advanced energy systems) and Amena Nelson (M.S., Advanced Manufacturing) received master's degrees. In addition, Delate and Miller were selected as the Presidential Senior Scholar-Athletes as the overall most outstanding graduates from Mines Athletics; Delate is a two-time all-American hurdler, while Miller was the 2023 NCAA indoor pole vault champion and a five-time NCAA podium finisher. They were also each selected as the outstanding graduates for their respective academic departments. 

LOOKING AHEAD
The Orediggers will host the Mines Pre-Conference on Feb. 16-17 at Steinhauer Fieldhouse, then head to RMAC Indoor Championships Feb. 23-24 at Black Hills State.