SPEARFISH, S.D.—The Chadron State College track and field team got off to what head coach Ryan Baily called “a really good start” Friday during the first day of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships being hosted by Black Hills State University.
Baily said the Eagles had almost no disappointments and had some nice surprises.
Chadron State’s first points came in the women’s pentathlon, where senior Chelsea Murray placed third and freshman Shelby Bozner finished fifth.
Next came first place in the 35-pound weight throw, where junior Charith Kapokotuwa hit 58-9 ½ to win the event by more than four feet.
The Eagles also earned lots of points in the women’s weight throw. Junior Alyssa Norton led the way by placing second at 53-5. She was followed by freshman Mel Herl, who was fourth at 50-8, and junior Cyndi Thomas, who was fifth at 49-11, her season best.
The CSC men had a strong showing in the long jump. Senior Lanar Newman placed third at 23-1 ¼ and freshman Barrett Browne of Sidney was fourth with a career best of 23-feet even. Browne’s previous best was 22-3 ½.
“Barrett’s jump was one of our highlights Friday,” Baily said. “It’s really nice to have surprises like that.”
Another freshman, Zerek Jones, earned sixth in the high jump by clearing 6-2 ¾. Jones also ranks second in the heptathlon through five of the eight events with 2,538 points. Teammates Greg Rodriguez (2,526) and Hunter Dettbenner (2,484) are third and fourth, respectively, in the standings and another of the Eagles, Kelly Troester (2427), is in sixth place.
Led by senior Phil Rivera, the Eagles qualified an array of sprinters for today’s finals.
Rivera had the fastest time in the 400-meter preliminaries of 49.74 seconds and was second in the 200 in 22.33 seconds.
Three more Chadron State entries also were among the eight finals qualifiers in the 200. They are Dean Francis (22.38), Brandon Segelke (22.44) and Alex Graham (22.77).
Graham also had the second fastest time in the 60-meter prelims (6.93) while Segelke also qualified for the finals with the seventh fastest time (7.02).
Con Marshall, Information Services