Results

EMPORIA, Kan. - Four more individual podium performances closed out the 2024 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships for Colorado School of Mines at Emporia State.

Saturday saw four Orediggers - Kitt Rupar, Everett Delate, Aryelle Wright, and Hunter Potrykus - climb the podium with First-Team All-America finishes, and Riley McGrath, Logan Bocovich, and Zoe Baker earned Second-Team All-America honors. 

The Mines women finished 12th with 20 points, while the men were 22nd scoring 11 team points. Pitt State won both the men's and women's team titles.

Rupar finished off a breakout debut NCAA Championships with her second podium in as many days, taking eighth place in a dramatic shot put competition that saw her break the program record. Seeded 21st, she qualified for finals out of the first flight, putting together an opening series where all three marks - 15.03m, 15.20m, and 14.84m - surpassed her previous collegiate best of 14.63m. In finals, Rupar again hit 15.00m but fouled on her last two attempts, then had to fend off a final throw by the ninth-place competitor to earn the podium place by only a centimeter. Rupar's 15.20m bests Kathleen Tomon's 14.92m set in 2021 as she became the first woman in Mines history to eclipse 15 meters. Rupar is the first outdoor women's all-American in shot put since Sarah Thaler in 1988. 

Delate closed his NCAA Championships with a fifth-place finish in the 110m hurdles, running a tick over his preliminary time to close in 13.86 seconds. The first Oredigger on the podium in the event since 2000, Delate adds his trophy to his indoor 60m hurdles sixth place finish this past winter; he reset his program record in the prelims with a 13.85-second run. 

Wright closed her career with her fourth consecutive 800m podium indoors or out, taking the bronze medal in 2:09.24 after a wild finish to the final. Wright was caught behind three leaders in the final 50 meters before the leader stumbled, and Wright was able to move around her to get to the line in a race that saw the top three finishers cross within four-tenths of each other. Wright was also the indoor bronze medalist this year.

Hunter Potrykus ended on the outdoor podium for the first time in his decorated career, taking seventh place in a windy pole vault competition. Potrykus cleared three bars, entering at 4.95m and solving 5.10m and 5.20m before going out at 5.30m. Noah Kelly, in his NCAA debut, cleared his opening height of 4.80m as well as 4.95m to finish 17th. 

McGrath doubled up on Saturday, first finishing 12th in her top event, the 1,500m run, in 4:33.03. That secured her a Second-Team All-America finish after she helped Mines finish seventh in the DMR during the indoor season. 

A brutally hot and windy 5,000m race closed out the meet for Mines, first with the men as Bocovich finished ninth in 14:53.17 thanks to a strong close, and Duncan Fuehen was 18th in 15:19.50. The women's group was led by Baker, whose 16:56.21 earned her ninth and a final, record-setting 15th all-America honor, while Molly Maksin closed 17th in 17:50.04 and McGrath, after running the 1,500m final earlier, gutted out 19th place in 18:05.12.