GOLDEN, Colo. -- December 9, 2016 -- Chadron State College track and field athletes won four events and placed high in several others Thursday and Friday against strong competition at the Colorado School of Mines Alumni Classic indoor meet in Golden.
Although the season began only a week ago, four of the marks CSC women have posted led the nation at the conclusion of the competition on Friday.
The Eagles had two winners Thursday night when defending NCAA Division II national champion
Stachia Reuwsaat went 19 feet, 11 inches on the long jump and
Jesse Bleidt won the men's 35-pound weight throw by more than three feet.
The other firsts were on Friday when senior
Mel Herl won the women's weight throw with a heave of 21.89 meters, or 71 feet, 10 inches, and freshman
Javan Lanier won the men's 60-meter dash in 6.94 seconds.
The women's weight throw began Thursday night, but it wasn't completed until Friday. That's because when Herl was warming up Thursday, her first toss went both high and far and got tangled up in a baseball batting cage that had been hoisted into the rafters of Steinauer Field House.
Rather that interrupting the meet to retrieve the weight then, meet officials told Herl they would remove the batting cage after Thursday's competition and have her weight available again Friday.
When she finally threw, her mark was the best so far this season in all NCAA classes and the fourth best all-time by a Division II thrower. A week ago Saturday at a meet at Black Hills State, Herl hit 70-1 to break the Chadron State record by more than six feet.
Besides winning the 60 dash, Lanier placed fifth in the long jump at 23-3 ¼ for one of seven provisional qualifying marks for the 2017 National Indoor Meet that Chadron State athletes turned in at the Mines Classic.
Another freshman,
Kharon Hall, was fourth in the triple jump at 45-7 ¾, also a provisional mark.
Besides winning the long jump Thursday, Reuwsaat ran the 60-meter dash in 7.50 seconds to break the school record of 7.57 that she set last year. Another top mark was posted by
Tessa Gorsuch, who ran the 60-high hurdles in 8.53 seconds, just two one-hundredths of a second over her school record in the race.
Reuwsaat and Gorsuch, both Rapid City natives, were second in those races to entries from Colorado State University at Fort Collins, but their marks were the best in Division II as of Friday night.
Bleidt's winning weight throw of 59 feet, 7 inches is a career-best and nearly 20 inches farther than his first place mark of 57-9 ¾ last Saturday at Black Hills State. The new mark sits fifth in the national rankings at the conclusion of the event, headed into week two of the young season.
Four other Chadron State men placed among the top eight in the weight throw, which had 22 entries.
Blake Jacobs was third,
Cory Martens fourth,
Frantzlee LaCrete seventh and
David Aldridge eighth.
Each of them exceeded his mark from last Saturday's meet by at least seven inches and both LaCrete and Aldridge has personal bests by at least two feet. Jacobs also placed third and Aldridge was fifth in the shot put.
In other results, Chadron State's
Ashlyn Hanson was third in the weight throw at 53-6 ½, a career best by more than a foot, and teammate
Keri Ruff was fifth at 50-0.
Also placing for the Eagles were
Alisha Heelan, third in the 400 (1:00.39),
Matt Klein, fourth in the 60 high hurdles (8.51) and Maddie Brashears, seventh in the long jump (18-10 ½.).
Women's Results
60—2,
Stachia Reuwsaat, 7.50.
60 high hurdles—2,
Tessa Gorsuch, 8.53.
400—3,
Alisha Heelan, 1:00.39.
20-pound weight throw—1,
Mel Herl, 71-10; 3, Ashley Hanson, 53-6 ¼; 5,
Keri Ruff, 50-0.
Long jump—1,
Stachia Reuwsaat, 19-11; 7, Maddie Brashears, 18-10 ½.
Men's Results
60—1,
Javan Lanier, 6.94.
60 high hurdles—4,
Matt Klein, 8.51.
Shot put—3,
Blake Jacobs, 53-7; 5,
David Aldridge, 51-7 ¼.
35-pound weight throw—1,
Jesse Bleidt, 59-7; 3,
Blake Jacobs, 55-3 ¾; 4,
Cory Martens, 54-7 ¼; 7,
Frantzlee LaCrete, 52-2 ½; 8,
David Aldridge, 50-8 ¾.
Long jump—5,
Javan Lanier, 23-3 ¼.
Triple jump—4,
Kharon Hall, 47-5 ¾.
