Men’s 4x400 and High Jump: RMAC champs

The men's 4x400-meter relay team took the RMAC title Feb. 27 in Golden, CO, earning UCCS Track and Field's first conference title for a relay team, while high jumper Steven Gomez's conference-best jump earned him a trip to the National Championships Mar. 12-13.

Setting a new UCCS school record, and winning a conference title in the process, Steven Gomez high jumped 2.14 meters. "It was really cool, everyone in the building was cheering for him," Senior Alicia DelPardo recounted.

Another highlight of the meet for the Mountain Lions came in the final event of the day, the Men's 4x400m relay. Going into the race seeded second, every member of the team had run disappointing races earlier in the day. "We wanted to avenge our poor performances," junior Jason Shaver said. Leading off, senior Alex Vasquez put UCCS  in the lead, passing off to freshman Jon Christian. "After that there was no turning back. All of us ran up to our potentials," explained Christian.

Crossing the tape at 3:25.8, junior Chris Reynolds finished the last leg of the race for the victory. "Winning the 4x400 is huge for our school, it's never happened, so it's great to be a part of that record," Reynolds explained. "It was again especially important because of the loss of our teammate David [Mueller]."

The victory was significant to the relay runners not just for the win. "This victory was extremely emotional for us, there were a lot of tears shed and a lot of excitement that came from this. It was especially important to Jason, Alex and I because we were so close with David," recalled Reynolds.

Shaver explained how Mueller helped them prepare. "He would have loved to have been in that race and in a way he was, he was in it with us. He has helped us over the past few weeks finding our identity, and I really believe in that."

Freshman Lauren Graham also made first team all conference by tying for the title in the pole vault; she placed second after a tiebreaker, but was still pleased with the result. "Pradal really motivated me to jump my best, though, because she was good competition," she said, in reference to Annelise Pradal of Adams State, who won the women's Pole Vault competition. 

UCCS placed 6th and 9th, respectively, for the men's and women's overall team competitions, and will now begin preparing for the outdoor track season's first meet at CU-Boulder March 20.