Three Rams win individual titles on day two of Mountain West Indoor Championships

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Colorado State's Kelcey Bedard, Alex Blaho and Grant Fischer each won individual titles to lead the Rams on day two of the Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Bedard and Blaho combined to sweep the women's and men's weight throw titles, and Fischer won the individual title in the men's 5,000 meters. The CSU women lead through two days of competition with 45 points, while the Rams' men are in second with 58. Air Force (66.5 points) is the only team leading CSU's men's team, and is the nearest team behind CSU on the women's side (26 points).

Alex Blaho was the first Ram to score an individual crown at this year's indoor conference meet after unloading a personal-best weight throw of 63-11.5 (19.49m). He paced four Rams that scored in the event, as Mostafa Hassan finished runner-up with a personal-best 63-0.75 (19.22m), while Bailey King (60-2/18.34m) placed third and Austin Blaho (57-5.5/17.51m) took seventh.

Bedard also registered a personal best in the weight throw, topping the women's field with a mark of 66-3.75 (20.21m). A pair of Rams joined her in the top five, as Linnea Jonsson threw the weight 61-0.25 (18.60m) for fourth place and Aimee Larrabee finished fifth with a mark of 59-11.75 (18.28m).

In between those two weight throw crowns was a 5,000 meters title for Fischer, who clocked a time of 14:39.43 and pulled away from Utah State star Dillon Maggard down the stretch for the win. Eric Hamer finished in the top five with a time of 14:55.57, while freshman Maximilliano Martinez made his Mountain West debut with a 5,000 time of 15:02.17 for eighth place. On the women's side, senior Darby Gilfillan took third place in the 5,000 meters with a time of 16:31.77. Gilfillan's time ranks as the fourth-best in meet history.

Rounding out the highlights in the women's field events on Friday were performances by Autumn Gardner and McKenzie Wright in the high jump. Gardner cleared a personal-best 5-11.25 (1.81m) to finish runner-up, while Wright jumped an indoor-best 5-10 (1.78) to take fourth place. Gardner's mark ranks second in program history and Wright's ranks fifth.

Rounding out the highlights in the jumps was the men's long jump, as each of Isa Bynum (fifth – 23-2/7.06m), Dalten Fox (seventh – 22-2.5/6.77m) and Ayo Sanusi (21-11.75/6.70m) scored points toward the team total. In multi-events, Dustin Ethridge finished his first collegiate heptathlon in sixth place with 4,790 points. Nick Kravec accounted for the final point scored by CSU men on Friday with an eighth-place finish in the heptathlon.

Performances in the hurdles were led by Destinee Rocker, who advanced to the 60-meter hurdles final with the top time (8.31) in preliminaries. Each of Jalen Hunter (second place – 8.09), Garrett Lane (fourth – 8.21) and Nick Kravec (sixth – 8.33) qualified for the 60-meter hurdles on the men's side.

Freshman Jessica Ozoude qualified for finals in each of the 60 meters (seventh – 7.56) and 200 meters (fourth – 24.22) to headline sprinting performances. On the women's side, each of Marybeth Sant (60 meters – 7.54), Lettia Wilson (60 meters – 7.59) and Jasmine Chesson (400 meters – 55.68) joined Ozoude as finals qualifiers. From the men's side, Sanusi (60 meters – 7.04), Ronald Sayles (200 meters – 21.58), Julian Dulaney (200 meters - 21.95) and Caleb Hardy (400 meters – 48.56) advanced to Saturday finals.

Five Rams qualified for Saturday's finals in the mile. Cole Rockhold (preliminaries heat two winner), Carson Hume (4:13.16) and Wayde Hall (4:12.22) each advanced on the men's side, while each of Dominique Ward (4:54.76) and Ali Kallner (4:54.78) moved on for the CSU women. Roxy Trotter (2:12.63) reached the 800 meters final to round out qualifiers from the distance and middle distance groups.

IN THEIR WORDS
Colorado State head coach Brian Bedard
On the men's weight throw:
"We knew the men's weight throw was going to be a big event for us. I thought we hit some optimistic projections for how we'd do there. We weren't sure we'd sweep there, but it went extremely well with most of the guys hitting either season bests or lifetime bests in competition. That was a big event for us to stay in contention and challenge for a title."

On the women's weight throw:
"Obviously it's emotionally quite a bit different when your daughter (Kelcey Bedard) is in the mix, but it was going to be very important for our women's team to have a good showing in the weight throw. I thought Fresno State competed well and gave us some challenges there to our ladies. It was nice to see Kelcey throw a lifetime best at the conference meet when it counted and to see her first championship."

Colorado State distance coach Art Siemers
On Grant Fischer:
"We knew it was going to be tough to beat Dillon Maggard – he's one of the best runners in the country. Grant just executed like Grant does. He's such a coachable athlete and he's a guy that's always in tune with what's going on. It's hard to focus when running beyond focusing on the act of racing, but he's able to absorb some coaching while he's actually racing a high level, which is very hard to do. It was a pretty special race, and probably one of the highlights of my coaching career to get to see him win the conference title the way he did against that kind of competition."

On Darby Gilfillan:
"She had a pretty slow start to the season, but she never lost confidence in what she could do or her abilities. She ran lights out today. With the altitude conversion, it's a huge PR for her and she proved her place in the conference. She ran one of her best collegiate races today. She was very composed all race and had a great finish to place in the top three."

Colorado State head assistant coach Ryan Baily
On Autumn Gardner:
"She really put it together today. I couldn't be more proud. She's overcome a lot of adversity here. My first year – her freshman year – I had six better high jumpers. Then she battled back to not only be one of our best high jumpers, but to be the second-best in school history. She's a fierce competitor, one of my favorite competitors, and she brought it today. She went all the way through 1.81 (meters) without a miss. It was special, and she's ending her indoor season on a high note."

NOTES
- Colorado State has now had the individual Mountain West indoor champion in the men's 5,000 meters in three consecutive seasons. Grant Fischer placed second in each of the previous two.
- Kelcey Bedard's winning weight throw mark of 66-3.75/20.21m ranks fourth on CSU's all-time indoor list.
- Alex Blaho's weight throw mark of 63-11.5/19.49m ranks 15th on CSU's all-time list, while Mostafa Hassan's 63-0.75/19.22m places 17th on that list.
- Jessica Ozoude's 200 meters time on Friday (24.22) ranks fourth on CSU's all-time indoor list.
- Jasmine Chesson moved up to sixth on CSU's all-time indoor list with her personal best time of 55.68 in the 400 meters on Friday.

UP NEXT
The Colorado State track & field team concludes action at the 2018 Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday. Field events start at 10 a.m. MT with the men's shot put and men's high jump, while track events begin at 12 p.m. MT with the women's mile final.

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