PUEBLO, Colo. – The Adams State University men's and women's track and field program will send a total of 21 student-athletes to compete next weekend at the 2023 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) counterpart, CSU Pueblo at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl. The meet is set to take place from Thursday, May 25 to Saturday, May 27.
The Grizzlies, who look to continue their national success from the indoor season, had ten men qualify in seven events, while having 12 women qualify in five different events. The Adams State women are looking for a clean sweep of the running championships as the women's cross country team won the title in Washington in December, while the indoor track and field team squeezed out a win in Virginia.
Meanwhile, the Adams State men finished second in indoor track.
The men will open up action on Thursday at 5:25 p.m. when senior
Miguel Coca will compete in the prelims of the 1,500-meter run. Junior
Jonah Vigil will compete in the prelims of the 400-meter dash.
Senior
Clement Duigou will be joined by junior
James Dunne in the prelims of the 3,000-meter steeplechase prelims at 7:10 p.m.
The first final of the weekend for the Grizzly men will be the men's 10,000-meter run when junior Cameron Allen, junior
Awet Beraki and senior
Aron Orar will look to garner points in the final event of the day at 8:50 p.m.
On Saturday, senior
Papay Glaywulu will be the first Grizzly to compete as he will take a leap at the triple jump title at 5:05 p.m.. Vigil will compete in the prelims of the 200-meter dash at 5:45 p.m. The finals for the 3,000-meter steeple chase will be Friday at 7:30 p.m.
On Saturday, sophomore Sam Dirkes will open action at 5:05 p.m. in the finals of the men's shot put.
The men's 1,500-meter, 400-meter and 200-meter finals will also be on Saturday. The final race of the weekend is set to start at 8:30 on Saturday as Allen, Beraki, Coca, Duigou and senior Devonte Jett-Reynolds will compete in the 10,000-meter finals.
Meanwhile, on the women's side, junior
Nicole Lawrence, and junior
Rachel O'Brien will race in the 1,500 at 5:10 on Thursday while junior
Morgan Hykes, sophomore
Ava O'Connor, sophomore
Emily Schoellkopf, and sophomore
Erin Stonebarger will race in the 3,000-meter steeplechase before sophomore
Reina Paredes, junior
Precious Robinson and sophomore
Brianna Robles will close out Thursday with the 10,000-meter run at 8:10 p.m.
Friday, freshman
Lieke Hoogsteen and sophomore
Jessica Simon will look to advance in the 800 meter prelims starting at 6:00 p.m. with 3,000-meter steeplechase finals to follow.
Saturday's main event will be the 10,000-meter where the Grizzlies will be represented by four runners including Hykes, Robinson, Robles and Schoellkopf.
A total of 754 participants, 377 men and 377 women, will compete in this year's Outdoor Track & Field National Championships. Student-athletes qualified for the championships by reaching a provisional standard established for each event and by being amongst the top athletes on the national performance lists in their respective events.
