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Colorado State’s Linnea Jonsson, Janelle Lincks, Hunter Price and Trenton Wallace all won individual titles in their respective events to give each of the Rams’ women and men leads heading to the final day of the 2017 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Ralph Maughan Track Stadium.
With one day left in the conference meet, CSU women have 56 points, while the Rams’ men have 88.5 points. CSU’s women lead San Diego State (40.5 points) by 16.5 points, while CSU’s men’s team leads Air Force (66.5 points) by 22 points.
Jonsson took first place behind the best women’s hammer performance of her career, a heave of 207-3 (63.17m). Jonsson’s mark ranks as the third-best in CSU history, as well as No. 5 in Mountain West history. Kelcey Bedard (207-3/63.17m) placed second in the women’s hammer, while Aimee Larrabee (190-6/58.07m) finished in fifth place. Bedard added a second-place finish and mark of 167-1 (50.93m) in the discus, while Aaliyah Pete (163-8/49.90m) placed fourth in the discus.
Four Rams finished in the top five (five scored overall) in the high jump, marking the first time any team has placed four athletes in the top five in MW Championships high jump competition. Wallace won a jump-off with Air Force’s John Reynolds, clearing seven feet (2.13m) for the win. Wallace was followed by Hunter Price in third (6-10.25/2.09m), Uche Obinnah in fourth (6-10.25/2.09m), Collin Scheer in fifth (6-8/2.03m) and Nick Meihaus in seventh (6-6/1.98m).
Four Rams scored in the long jump, this time led by Price, who leapt a wind-aided 25-6.25 (7.78m) to claim the individual title. Price added a non-wind-aided mark of 24-6.5 (7.48m), which ranks second in program history. Ayo Sanusi jumped 23-11.5 (7.30m) for fifth place, with Dalten Fox (sixth place) right behind at 23-11 (7.29m). Scheer rounded out CSU scorers with a mark of 23-4.5 )7.12m) and an eighth-place finish.
The Rams added one more individual title in the final event of the day, as Lincks claimed the 3,000-meter steeplechase title with a time of 10:26.45 (unofficially 10:12.40 converted for altitude) and final split of 1:12.12. Laura Yarrow finished in fourth place with a time of 10:32.86 (unofficially 10:22.53 converted for altitude).
On the men’s side of the hammer throw, each of Jake Newell and Alex Blaho scored points for the Rams. Newell placed fourth with a mark of 183-10 (56.03m), while Alex Blaho threw the hammer 164-3 (50.07m) to finish in eighth. Alex Blaho also scored for the Rams in the discus, recording a mark of 163-10 (49.95m). Mostafa Hassan threw the discus 163-6 (49.85m) for sixth place.
12 athletes qualified for finals in various preliminaries on Friday. Leah Fair qualified for the 100 meters with a wind-aided time of 11.59, and followed with a program-record time of 23.77 in the 200 meters to reach the event’s finals on Saturday. Ronald Sayles also qualified for finals in the 100 meters and 200 meters, qualifying with respective times of 10.70 and 21.22.
Along with his long jump and high jump heroics, Price also ran in the 110-meter hurdles preliminaries, qualifying for the finals with a time of 14.25. Jace Horak will join Price in the finals after clocking a time of 14.62 in preliminaries. In the 100-meter hurdles, Lorenda Holston qualified for finals with a time of 13.12 (wind aid of 2.1).
CSU had two athletes qualify for the 400-meter hurdles on each of the women’s and men’s sides. Emma Kratzberg (1:00.12) and Katie Werman (1:01.52) placed second and third, respectively, while Darius Smith (52.96) and Jalen Hunter (55.21) qualified on the men’s side.
Three-time Mountain West 400 meters champion Emily Romo qualified for the finals in the event once again after finishing preliminaries in 54.26. Abby Simpson clocked a time of 56.32 to join Romo in Saturday’s finals. Macy Kreutz ran the 800 meters in 2:11.41 in preliminaries to round out finals qualifiers.
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