By Chandler Harris, Assistant Sports Editor
The men and women’s track and field teams traveled to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., over the weekend for the Air Force Invitational. The men won the team competition, and the women finished in fourth.
“It was a team-scored meet, so it was a lot of fun to be in a meet that actually counted for something,” said head coach Don Hood. “There were a lot of good schools there, including BYU, Air Force and Colorado State.”
Hood said he enjoyed this team-meet format because athletes get the chance to run in more events than normal.
On the men’s side, Cory Altenberg placed third in the pole vault with a career-best performance of 16 feet 8.75 inches. Nick Jones placed fourth in the shot put with a throw of 53-02.25, his best throw in college.
Ramon Sparks placed second in the triple jump with a mark of 49-05.5 and third in the long jump with a season-best leap of 23-07.5. Julius Nyango won the mile and claimed an automatic qualifying berth to the national meet with a time of 4:18.55.
Amos Sang won the 5,000-meter with a time of 15:25.02, good enough for a provisional qualifying mark. The men’s mile relay also won its event and by more than two seconds.
“The men’s relay team winning going away was a great way to end the meet,” Hood said.
The women also had a strong showing led by Wanda Hutson, who won the 60-meter in 7.34 seconds and improved upon her personal best time.
“She didn’t just win it; she blew them out,” Hood said “She was taking her spikes off and putting her shoes on while the others were crossing the finish line.”
Kim Prather won the 400-meter with a personal best and automatic qualifying time of 55.56 seconds.
“It was very exciting to see her run that well,” Hood said. “This is the first year she has run the quarter-mile, and you wouldn’t know it by watching her. She did a great job.”
Kelli Clements improved in the shot put with an automatic mark of 47-11.25, which now leads all of NCAA Division II.
On Friday, the distance runners on the team will compete at the University of Nebraska for the Nebraska Tune-Up meet. On Saturday, Hood said he plans to take 25 athletes to the University of Oklahoma for the Sooners Open meet.
