Courtesy of Colorado State Athletics
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Colorado State track and field team traveled 24 Rams to the 2024 NCAA Outdoor West Regional preliminary rounds set to take place May 22-25. Seven Rams competed Wednesday evening to kick off the preliminary meet with one Ram punching his ticket to nationals.
Senior Mariano Kis earned a trip to Eugene with an outdoor personal best mark on his first throw in the men’s shot put Wednesday evening. The throw of 18.81 meters finished ninth in the preliminary competition and moves Kis up to third all-time in the Colorado State record book.
Kis’ teammate Kyle Bigley also competed in the men’s shot put, finishing 27th with a mark of 17.71 meters.
On the track, sophomore Tyler Colwell finished 28th in the men’s 100 meter dash with a time of 10.38 seconds, finishing only four places out of the top 24 athletes that will move on to compete in the final rounds of the preliminary meet Friday.
Also in sprints, hurdler Cole Nordman ran a personal best time of 14.12 seconds in the men’s 110 meter hurdles finishing 36th in the preliminary heats and moving himself up to eighth all-time in the CSU record book to finish his season.
Colorado State senior Ryan Birkmeier also had a season best time in the men’s 800 meter run, finishing 30th with a time of 1:49.25 seconds, only .15 seconds off his personal best time. Birkmeier finishes his Colorado State career as the school record holder in the indoor 800 meter run.
Closing out the night for Colorado State was Mason Brown and Lars Mitchel who both represented the Rams in the men’s 10K. Brown finished 17th with a time of 29:27.02 while Mitchel followed close behind with a time of 29:56.88, finishing 29th in the preliminary.
After day one, the Rams boast one qualifier so far set to travel to Eugene, Oregon for the 2024 Outdoor NCAA Championships set to take place June 5-8. Kis will cheer on his fellow Rams competing over the next three days in Fayetteville to see who will join him at the championship meet.
