Important Two-Meet Weekend for Rams

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The Rams will be split between the Iowa State Classic and the Don Kirby Invitational this weekend for essentially the last tune-up for the Colorado State track and field program before the Mountain West Championships in two weeks.

The Rams do have a one-day Air Force Collegiate Open meet scheduled for next week, but usually that is reserved for student-athletes rehabbing or needing repetitions. Regardless, head coach Brian Bedard and Co. will have to set its conference roster of 28 student-athletes for each the men and women's side for the following week. The 22^nd-running of the MW Indoor Track & Field Championships will be in Albuquerque, N.M., starting Feb. 24^th and going through Feb. 26^th. The meet is back after COVID-19 wiped out the 2021 version, meaning the CSU men are still the defending champions from their 2020 title.

Splitting up this weekend ensures that the Rams get to see competition that challenges them in all event areas. The vast majority will be participating at the Albuquerque Convention Center for the Don Kirby Invite, which is one of the top meets of the weekend across the nation. The Rams will be toeing the lines with over 30 teams, including eight Pac-12 schools, eight MW foes, a SEC member and a handful of other tough California institutions. Action starts at 2 p.m. Friday and goes until close to the 8 p.m. hour, while Saturday's events start at 8:30 a.m. and conclude closer to 3 p.m. Live results can be found at https://csura.ms/3uHLeUD. Live Stream via FloTrack can be found at https://csura.ms/3uFYY28.

The long-distance Rams head to the plains for the Iowa State Classic and their only sea-level meet of the season. After running at altitude all season, the student-athletes' pupils are big with the thoughts of personal records and school records in sight. Over 15 schools will be in competition including five Big 12 conference schools, three Big 10 representatives and MW rival Air Force. Friday's action will consist of the 5,000 and 3,000-meter races, starting at 11:25 a.m. MT with the last Rams racing at 4:50 p.m. MT. Live results can be found at https://csura.ms/3Bh4gCr. Live Stream via FloTrack can be found at https://csura.ms/3uFV5u4. The mile races will go on Saturday to conclude CSU's contingent in the Midwest.

A total of 48 top-20 school marks have been obtained thus far with the women grabbing 36 of them and the men achieving a dozen. Within those marks, there have been five school records (Lexie Keller, Pentathlon); Lauren Gale, 400m; Tom Willems, 400m; and both 4x400-meter relays).

On the NCAA Indoor Performance List, the Rams have 13 total marks in the top 50 between the women and men. Looking ahead to the NCAA Championships, the top 16 declared student-athletes per event will be accepted into the national meet. The NCAA Championships will be hosted in Birmingham, Ala., occurring March 11^th-12^th.

NCAA Indoor Performance List Top-50 (Colorado State)
Women
26th; 200 meters, Jessica Ozoude
33rd; 200 meters, Lauren Gale
1st; 400 meters, Lauren Gale
22nd; 4x400m Relay (Yolonda Johnson, Jessica Ozoude, Grace Goldsworthy, Lauren Gale)
39th; High Jump, Jordan Lanning
32nd; Shot Put, Gabi McDonald
46th; Weight Throw, Tarynn Sieg (Bown)
11th; Pentathlon, Lexie Keller
41st; Pentathlon, Jordan Lanning

Men
20th; 400 meters, Tom Willems
33rd; 4x400 meter Relay (Adam Stark, John Fulton, Jack Cauble, Tom Willems)
34th; Triple Jump, Allam Bushara
36th; Shot Put, Mariano Kis

What to Watch For?
Don Kirby Invite

Hurdling Rams: For the first time this season, Andrew Doctor, Liam Mather, Kamal-Craig Golaube and Germain Barnes will all be competing in the 60-meter race. The first three swept the 110mH at the MW Outdoor Championships last year. Barnes entered as the No. 1 seed but wasn't completely healthy.
Multis Calibrating: Lexie Keller and Jordan Lanning completed pentathlon last weekend in the same building. This weekend, they pick a few events to fine tune some things. Keller, fresh off her CSU pentathlon record, and Jordan Lanning are in the high jump, long jump and 60mH.
Stermer in the Vault: Last time out, Celyn Stermer upped her PR to 13'2.25'' – good for second all-time – and was jumping for the school record. In six meets this season, she has four wins and two second-place finishes.
Jumps Finding their Rhythm: Last time out, Allam Bushara eclipsed the 50-foot mark with a 51'3.75'' in the triple jump for a season-best. His jump mate, Isa Bynum, also had his best triple jump of the season at 47'2.5''.
ThrowingU vs. the Field: Tarynn Sieg-Bown hasn't lost a weight throw this season (5-for-5) and Gabi McDonald can say the same about the shot put (5-for-5). Transfer Michael Hawkins has four second-place shot put finishes plus two in the weight throw. On the men's side, Mariano Kis has four shot put wins including the third-best throw in school history. He also has four top-3 places in the weight throw.
Tests for 4x400m Relay: Both the men and women set school records at the Colorado Invitational two weekends ago, but how will they do against some different jerseys?

Iowa State Classic

Women's 3,000: At the CU Invitational, three Rams (Claudia Burgess, Ashlyn Hillyard, and Annabel Stafford) logged top-20 school marks at 14^th, 17^th, and 20^th, respectively. Only Burgess is running it this weekend out of that trio. The altitude in Ames, Iowa is 942 feet compared to 5,318 feet in Boulder.
Women's 5,000: Lily Tomasula-Martin leads Stafford and Hillyard into this one. Tomasula-Martin holds the school's ninth-best time of 16:47.23, which she set two years ago.
Women's Mile: Anna Petr and Megan Mooney climbed onto this list earlier this season at 14^th and 17^th, respectively, but again…at altitude. Lauren Neugeboren also is in the mix here.
Men's 3K & 5K: Only one current runners in the entry lists have their names on the all-time list. Maximilliano Martinez logged the ninth-best time in CSU history for the 5K in 2019 and has battled some injuries since but is back to full steam. Tanner Norman also has yet to run an indoor 5K with the Rams since cross country season collided with the last indoor track season.
Men's Mile: Jacob Brueckman (11^th in CSU History) and Tom Oates (15^th in CSU History) look to have a fast Saturday.

Coaches' Corner
Head coach Brian Bedard
"This week's training felt different over at the Glenn Morris Fieldhouse. The Mountain West meet drawing closer and closer has been apparent for the staff and student-athletes. We've started to pick up some steam and see some positive results in these last couple meets, and we are excited to get another big test, before conference. Our squad is split again this weekend, but we have more Rams in action between Albuquerque and Ames. I'm very excited to see how we respond against the competition that we haven't seen yet this season."

Assistant coach Art Siemers – Distance
"Iowa State will have some good competition in the distance races for us. We also have a handful of runners going to Don Kirby for the 800 and mile races. However, the Iowa State Classic our lone sea level meet of the indoor season, so our student-athletes are super excited to go for their best times. We're aiming in Ames for a special meet that gets us ready for the conference championships. Just like it is for cross country, the conference is tough, and we are still narrowing down our conference roster, so this weekend will still yield a lot of information for us to make those final decisions."

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Players Mentioned

Germain Barnes

Jacob Brueckman

Claudia Burgess

Allam Bushara

Isa Bynum

Jack Cauble

Andrew Doctor

John Fulton

Lauren Gale

Kamal-Craig Golaube

Grace Goldsworthy

Ashlyn Hillyard

Yolonda Johnson

Lexie Keller

Mariano Kis

Jordan Lanning

Maximilliano Martinez

Liam Mather

Megan Mooney

Gabi Morris

Lauren Neugeboren

Tanner Norman

Tom Oates

Jessica Ozoude

Anna Petr

Tarynn Sieg

Annabel Stafford

Adam Stark

Celyn Stermer

Lily Tomasula-Martin

Tom Willems

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