PUEBLO, Colo. – Ayden Hartzell placed third in the individual 400 meters and then ran the anchor relay leg to help the Chadron State men's 4x400 team take the same spot, highlighting the final-day performances at the RMAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. 

The relays mainly carried the points-scoring baton for CSC on Sunday as the men's 4x400 team took third while the men's 4x100 team finished fourth. The Eagles also had two place winners in both the men's 200 and men's 400-meter races. 

Chadron State finished the 2026 outdoor meet with six podium finishes. Aside from the two bronzes earned Sunday, the Eagles had one gold medalist (Tavion Leatherdale in the men's discus) and three silver medalists (Courtney Williams in the decathlon, Shelby Ekwall in the women's shot put and Chayton Bynes in the men's triple jump), all from Saturday's action.

Bynes, the defending RMAC outdoor champion in the triple jump, scratched from that event this morning. He still ranks No. 4 among all Division II jumpers with his season-best mark of 15.73 meters (51 feet, 7.25 inches).

In the final team scoring standings, the CSC men finished in sixth place with 56 points, which is one place but also just one point shy of last season's finish of fifth with 57. The CSC women finished in 12^th, the same as a year ago, but scored 15 points in 2026 compared to 10 in 2025.

The top three schools were the same for both genders, but the order was shuffled. UCCS ran away with the women's title, scoring 227.3 points, while Colorado Mesa was second with 107.33 and Colorado School of Mines came third with 101. 

On the men's side, it was the Orediggers winning the conference title with 188 points. UCCS finished second as a team with 164 while Colorado Mesa was third with 116.5. The other two schools to finish in front of the Eagles were fourth-place CSU Pueblo (88 points) and fifth-place South Dakota Mines (69.5). 

Hartzell, a freshman from Evanston, Wyoming, was CSC's highest individual finisher on the day by coming third in the 400. His teammate, sophomore Christopher Cormier, finished eighth to give CSC one additional team point. 

Hartzell turned it on for the finals, qualifying sixth in 47.88 seconds but circling the track and 47.39 in the final, a new personal best and an NCAA provisional qualifying time that currently is No. 61 in Division II this year. Cormier placed in 48.85 seconds.

In the men's 200, Eagle runners finished fifth and sixth. Ryan Clapper and Hartzell ran in 21.51 and 21.53 seconds, respectively. Once again, Hartzell improved his time in the final after making the top nine by just six thousandths of a second during yesterday's prelims.

Despite double-dipping in individual finals earlier in the day, Hartzell had enough in the tank to help CSC close out the track portion of the meet with its final podium finish in the 4x400. The crew of Cormier, Clapper, Kadin Perez and Hartzell ran 3:13.23, over 1.3 seconds faster than CSC's fifth-place time at last year's RMAC meet. 

The 4x100 relay team of Augustin Chiang, Joshua St. Jean, Clapper and Esosa Iyengunmwena crossed the line in 40.73. The Eagles were seven hundredths of a second off the podium.

Sydney Alles tallied Chadron State's only women's team points of the day when she sealed a seventh-place finish in the hammer throw. Alles started strong, with her first throw of 47.59m (156 feet, 1 inch) holding up as her scoring mark. 

With the conference meet concluded, a couple weekends of last chance meets are next on the schedule for those on the precipice of qualification for nationals to fight for the final spots. Chadron State has seven outdoor provisional qualifiers, all currently on the men's side, but only two (Chayton Bynes at No. 4 in the triple jump and Courtney Williams at No. 16 in the decathlon) are currently in a qualification position, with lots of jockeying expected.

To recap, here are CSC's top-eight placers (points scorers) from all three days of the RMAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships: 
 
Men
200 meters – 5, Ryan Clapper, 21.51 seconds; 6, Ayden Hartzell, 21.53 seconds.
400 meters – 3, Ayden Hartzell, 47.39 seconds; 8, Christopher Cormier, 48.85 seconds.
Discus – 1, Tavion Leatherdale, 51.58 meters (169-2).
Long jump – 2, Chayton Bynes, 7.38 meters (24-2.5).
Shot put – 7, Casey Miller, 15.38 meters (50-5.5).
4x100 – 3, Chadron State (Augustin Chiang, Joshua St. Jean, Ryan Clapper, Esosa Iyengunmwena), 40.73 seconds. 
4x400 – 4, Chadron State (Christopher Cormier, Ryan Clapper, Kadin Perez, Ayden Hartzell), 3:13.23 seconds.
Decathlon – 2, Courtney Williams, 6,734 pts; 6, Ethan Norris, 6,132 points.

Women
Hammer – 7, Sydney Alles, 47.59 meters (156-1).
Shot put – 2, Shelby Ekwall, 13.72 meters (45-0.25); 4, Kristie Jordan, 12.81 meters (42-0.5).