Results

PUEBLO, Colo. - Colorado School of Mines produced strong season-opening performances all over the stadium as they began the outdoor track & field campaign at CSU Pueblo's Dr. Dan Caprioglio Early Bird Invite on Saturday.

The highlight on the track was a loaded 10,000m field that may be the best assembled this season in D-II outside of the national championship meet. In a heat containing six of the top nine finishers from last year's NCAA Outdoor Championships - and on the same track - the top seven finishers ran under the podium pace from that race, with Mines led by Logan Bocovich (29:50.74), Paul Knight (29:55.78), and Duncan Fuehne (29:59.90) all under a half-hour. All eight Orediggers in the race ran NCAA provisional times with the elevation conversion, including JP Rutledge (30:10.46), John O'Malley (30:45.24), Daniel Appleford (30:57.99), Andrew Kaye (31:00.71), and Dawson Gunn (31:11.14). Although too early in the outdoor season to have a good sense of where they stand nationally, Bocovich, Knight, Fuehne, and Rutledge are all inside last year's qualification window for nationals.

Tim Thompson provided the Orediggers' first event win on the track, taking first in the men's 800m run with a 1:53.60 time. Avary Catchings finished the women's race in a fifth-place 2:20.79. It was a breezy and cool day for the sprinters as Garrett Halbrooks ran a wind-aided 10.98 100m, and he also ran a wind-aided 23.17 in the 200m. Grace Galvin ran 58.87 for fourth and Randi Higashi 59.41 for sixth in the 400m dash.

The women's 400m hurdles was a highlight of the day as Allison Comer and Aani Hardesty ran new Mines top-10 times. Comer placed second in her PR of 1:03.11 (#3 on the list), while Hardesty ran 1:04.65 in her debut (#6). Andrea Walser hit seventh in 1:09.92. The 100m hurdles had three Oredigger freshmen continue their solid indoor campaigns as Hardesty, Walser, and Lisa Sutherland finished 3-4-5 in wind-aided times of 14.97 for Hardesty, 15.02 for Walser, and 15.04 for Sutherland. In the men's 110m hurdles, another freshman, Rhett Cullers, ran a wind-aided 15.33 for fourth. Cullers would later place fourth in the 400m hurdles, timing 57.18, with Elijah Quinby clocking 58.82 for seventh. 

The women's 4x400 relay got some early-season work in with Comer, Catchings, Hardesty, and Galvin winning easily in 3:56.72, the #6 performance on the Mines all-time top-10 list.

The Orediggers' pole vault dominance carried right over into the spring season as the men took the top four slots. Battling the wind, Hunter Potrykus and Kai Miller both got over 4.73m, with Potrykus judged first on misses, while Shane Conley and Aidan Bennett tied for third (4.58m) with Jackson Wray sixth (4.28m). The women's competition was all Orediggers with Avery Herbold winning at 3.88m, Dale Thompson second over 3.73m, Ava Kowalski third at 3.58m, and Madeline Obuchowski fourth at 3.28m.

Grant Redmond picked up an early-season win, clearing 2.02m to top the men's high jump standings, while Claire Kintzley finished fourth in the women's competition getting over 1.57m, her outdoor best.

Mines' throwers continued their progress from the indoor season with a good day in the circles. The men's shot put had four Orediggers in the top 10 as Brody Welch was third (15.29m), Franklin Rambo fifth (14.53m), Hayden Swim sixth (14.08m), and Cade Whish 10th (12.67m). In the hammer throw, Davin Kiesby threw 54.36m to be the runner-up in the hammer throw, with Welch 10th (45.91m), Swim 13th (43.11m), and Whish 17th (35.80m). It was more of the same in the discus with Rambo placing fifth (39.63m), Whish seventh (38.58m), and Kiesby 10th (36.01m), while the javelin saw Rambo throw 48.14m for third to round out his busy day. In the women's shot put, Kitt Rupar tossed 13.86m for second place, a huge outdoor PR and just a shade under her indoor best of 13.91m. She later added a third-place 40.62m discus throw.

Nicholas Nijkamp was the triple jump runner-up at 13.79m, his outdoor PR, with Kintzley the runner-up in the women's triple at 11.50m, also her outdoor PR. Sutherland placed third in the women's long jump (5.23m), and Prince Owusu-Ansah was sixth in the men's long jump at 6.07m.

The Orediggers split squads next week, heading back to Pueblo for the Spank Blasing Invitational and across the country to the Hurricane Collegiate Invitational in Miami, Fla.