PUEBLO, Colo. – The 2023 NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships opened up on Thursday at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl with Adams State's harriers filled with excitement and confidence.
In addition to ten points by the men to stand in third place behind Pittsburg State (16 points) and Missouri Southern (14 points) while the women also scored ten points and sit in in a four-way tie with Academy of Art, Winona State and Grand Valley State. The Grizzlies advanced seven to final events.
The final races of the day were the first final races for the Grizzlies as three Grizzlies were represented in each final 10,000-meter race.
On the women's side, sophomore
Reina Paredes, junior
Precious Robinson, and sophomore
Brianna Robles. Robles led for part of the race before falling back and taking second place with a time of 34:08.25. Robinson earned two team points by finishing seventh with a time of 25:28.60. Parades finished in 35:56.47 to take 12th place.
On the men's side junior
Cameron Allan, junior
Awet Beraki and senior
Aron Orar. Beraki earned eight points by breaking 30 minutes with a time of 29:59.1. Orar finished in seventh place with a time of 30:19.73. Allan finished in 15 th place with a time of 31:26.75.
The day opened with the women's 1,500-meter run prelims. With Adams State represented by juniors
Nicole Lawrence and
Rachel O'Brien, Lawrence earned the final qualifying mark for the finals as she posted the 12th fastest time with a mark of 4:33.94. She will race on Saturday at 5:35 p.m.
O'Brien finished in 19th place with a time of 4:46.84.
On the men's side, senior
Miguel Coca finished ninth in 3:51.66 to advance to Saturday's finals, which is set to commence at 5:45 p.m. (MT).
Junior
Jonah Vigil opened his weekend with the 400-meter run as he qualified for the finals with a time of 46.46. His final is at 6:25 p.m. (MT) on Saturday.
The 3,000-meter steeplechase preliminaries saw junior
Morgan Hykes, sophomore
Ava O'Connor, sophomore
Emily Schoellkopf advance to Friday's final at 7:15 p.m. (MT). O'Connor was the top finisher for the Grizzlies with a mark of 10:37.89 while Schoellkopf had the eighth fastest mark of 10:49.70. Hykes advanced on time as she finished tenth in 10:53.54.
Sophomore Erin Stoneburger posted a time of 11:14.80 to finish in 17th place.
On the men's side, senior
Clement Duigou finished in fourth in 9:13.85 while junior
James Dunne finished 15th with a time of 9:30.05. Duigou will advance to Friday's finals at 7:30 p.m. (MT).
The Grizzlies will have a lighter Friday which is Day Two of the 2023 NCAA Division II Championships as the first event to start will be the men's triple jump at 5:05 p.m. (MT).
