The CSU men’s and women’s track and field teams each walked away with plenty of hardware after the Mountain West indoor track and field championships concluded Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The women just walked away with a little more.
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With a solid all around performance, and a few record-breaking efforts, the women’s team claimed the overall indoor title scoring 115 points in total over the three-day meet.
“I thought from start to finish, they were really consistent,” head coach Brian Bedard said in a release. “They were aggressive, they were focused, they were having fun and supporting each other. To have it actually happen, it’s tough to pull it off. They just kept the faith and kept working hard.”
The title marks the second overall indoor title the women have won since joining the Mountain West, and the first for Bedard who was named the 2016 Mountain West Women’s Coach of the Year after his team’s performance.
Juniors Aaliyah Pete and Isobel Brown kicked off Saturday’s events with two first-place finishes for CSU.
Brown set a personal record by jumping 5 feet and 10 inches to win the high jump, while Pete repeated as the indoor conference champion in the shot put with a throw of 52 feet and 5.25 inches.
“It feels great,” Pete said. “That was the expectation coming in. I haven’t been throwing that great, but it’s kind of like, ‘just remember where you’ve been, and remember it’s only what happens on the day (of the competition) that matters’. That’s kind of what kept me going.”
Junior Emily Romo broke her own school record in the women’s indoor 400-meter dash with a time of 53.78 seconds to take home the third individual conference title for the women on Saturday.
Pole vaulter Karly Reimel did what she has done all year, breaking her own indoor school record with a vault of 13 feet and 5.25 inches to take second-place overall in the women’s pole vault Friday.
“It felt really good to finish with an indoor PR (personal record) and a school record, and to come in and place well for the team,” Reimel said. “It was definitely a successful indoor season, so I’m really excited about that.”
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Senior Jessica Green also scored big points over the three-day event, taking second in the pentathlon, which ran on Thursday and Friday. She also took fourth in the high jump on Saturday.
The men’s team fought neck-and-neck-(and neck) with Air Force and Utah State throughout the three days. The Rams were edged out in the end by both teams and took third-place with 138 points, four points behind the first-place team, Air Force.
Sophomore Hunter Price opened up the meet with the multi-event athletes in the heptathlon Thursday, and after two days of competition, Price ran away with the event in a record-setting performance.
Price’s mark of 5,621 points not only won the event by a margin of 360 points, but it broke the CSU school record for the heptathlon and stands as the third-best score in the history of the conference.
Price also scored in all three individual jumps events, as did junior Collin Scheer who took second in the high jump Friday night.
In the men’s 5,000-meter run Friday, CSU distance stars Jefferson Abbey and Jerrell Mock kept up their season long domination, running away with the event to finish first and second respectively.
Abbey finished with a time of 14:43.11, less than two seconds ahead of Mock.
“The race pretty much went to form,” CSU distance coach Art Siemers said. “The athletes were really pumped up to help the team win a conference title. It was a pretty special night. It’s just amazing.”
Mock also took second place in the 3,000-meter run Saturday, while Abbey finished fourth.
The men’s team started hot Saturday, as sophomore Mostafa Hassan won the conference title in the shot put by almost five feet with a throw of 62 feet and 10 inches. Senior Tyler Schultz finished second in the event with a toss of 57 feet 9 inches. The efforts were not enough for the men’s team to close out the weekend with the indoor team title.
Qualifying CSU athletes will compete at the 2016 NCAA indoor track and field championships March 11-12 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Collegian Sports Reporter Eric Wolf can be reached at sports@collegian.com.
