PUEBLO, Colo. – April 29, 2022 –Chadron State College throwers went first, second, and seventh on Friday in Pueblo to rack up 20 team points strictly from the hammer throw at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
Sophomore Shane Collins added nearly five feet to his personal best, and beat the RMAC meet record by about a foot, winning his signature event by a couple of inches over teammate Daniel Reynolds. Collins' winning throw of 61.58 meters was a top-10 national mark entering the meet, placing him squarely within the NCAA championships field for May.
 
Reynolds also beat the 15-year-old former RMAC meet record, launching the hammer 61.52 meters. Reynolds' final mark was achieved on his first attempt of the second flight of throwers, and he fouled on four of his final five attempts.
 
Sophomore Parker Gonser made it out of the first flight of contestants in eighth place, setting a new career best by a whopping nine feet, seven inches. All four of his countable marks were career bests, but he dramatically waited for his last attempt to uncork his scoring throw, moving up from eighth to seventh.
 
One other field event went final on Friday. In the men's long jump, Emory Yoosook nailed a personal best 7.19 meter hop on his first attempt of the first flight to take the lead. Only five other competitors in flight two were able to best his initial jump, and he gave the Eagles men three additional team points with a sixth place finish. Yoosook cracked his previous outdoors best, from four weeks ago in Kearney, Nebraska, by 11.5 inches.
 
By adding another five or six inches to his leap in the intervening three weeks, Yoosook could be selected for the national championship field.
 
The Eagles men were third in the team standings after three events were final on Friday.
 
On the women's side, CSC's five team points came from Courtney Smith in the women's hammer throw. She was nearly eight feet past her career best, recording a toss of 50.72 meters in the finals to leap out of ninth place, to scoring range and fourth overall.
 
Other than hammer, long jump, and the 10,000 meters, where CSC had no qualifiers, all other action was either preliminary or multi events. The Eagles had several track finalists and some success in multis.
 
Sophomores Gregory Logsdon and Osvaldo Cano qualified seventh and eighth for the men's 400 meter final. Freshman Quincy Efeturi, who joined the team at the semester break, and junior Brodie Roden, who was out for an extended period in the fall, were eighth and ninth, respectively, in the 100 meters. Freshman Logan Peila qualified ninth in the 400 meter hurdles.
 
Carlie Collier, a third-year student-athlete still technically a redshirt freshman in the outdoor season, was ninth in the women's 100 meters to make it into the finals.
 
In the women's heptathlon, sophomore Hannah Christie was tied for third place, after four of seven stages, with 2,534 points. She trailed first-place Mica Jenrette of Colorado Mesa, a national qualifier, by 533 points.
 
In the men's decathlon, three Eagles were in scoring position after 5 of 10 events.
 
Junior Harley Rhoades was fifth in the standings. His best showing was the 400 meters, where he finished second. He exactly matched his best 100 meter time of 11.23 seconds, from more than a month ago. Rhoades was third in the high jump with no misses at 1.78 meters, and beat his own best long jump by seven inches.
 
Sophomore Pete Brown had personal bests in three of five decathlon elements on Friday, to put himself in seventh. Freshman Kaden Dower registered bests in the long jump and 400 meters to sit in eighth.
 
The University of Colorado Colorado Springs were in charge of the women's standings, after three events were scored, with 32 points. The Colorado School of Mines men led their standings at 38 points.