Chelsey Murray claimed the first points for the Chadron State women at this year’s Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Track Championships at Colorado School of Mines when she placed this morning in the heptathlon.

Murray…a senior from Highland, Michigan, finished 5th with 4235 points, just 16 points out of 3rd and 430 behind winner Danisha Phillips of New Mexico Highlands. Phillips edged teammate Destiny Dillworth by 33 points.

Murray, who sat 3rd after the first day of the 7-event competition, posted her best score in the first event, the 100-meter high hurdles, collecting 745 points with the 3rd-fastest time at 15.75.

The Chadron State men picked up their first points of the meet in the first event completed, the discus. Senior Cody Ross, who had the best throw in the RMAC coming into the meet, did not throw, but 3 other Eagles posted season-bests to score 11 points.

Junior Charith Kapukotuwa placed 3rd at 157-8…his best this year by more than 2-feet….freshman Tanner Rein from Mitchell was 6th at an even 155’…his best by nearly 15’…and sophomore Kyle McCarthy of Aurora was 7th at 153-1…topping his previous best by almost 12-feet.

Black Hills State’s Trish Koch placed 7th in the heptathlon with 3,756 points while the Yellow Jackets’ Mitch Kraft was 3rd in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of  9:29.30.

As of 1 pm, there were still 3 events remaining in the decathlon…the pole vault, javelin, and 1500…and  CSC had 3 men in the top 6. sophomore Hunter Dittbenner of Mitchell sat 2nd with 4,355…senior Sean Munger of Imperial was 5th with 4,246…and sophomore Jazz Bozner from Rock Springs, Wyo, was 6th, just 9 points behind Munger.

The fourth Eagle decathlete, Kelley Troester of Marsland, stood 10th with 3,758 but did post the fastest 400 time and 4th-best shot put. Dittbenner was tops in the long jump and had the second-fastest time in the 110-HH. Munger was best in the discus, and Bozner tied for the second-best height in the high jump.

Black Hills State junior Riley Meissner was 4th with the events remaining. He had 4,292 points…as just 234 points separated the top 7 competitors.