PUEBLO, Colo. (KXRM) — Just two days after setting a program record in the 4×100 relay, the UCCS Mountain Lions did even better in the finals Saturday at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
The UCCS quartet of Mason Pastorello, Justice Mendoza, Kymani Sterling and Brian Mosley Jr. finished one-hundredth of a second behind Academy of Art for a top-three finish.
“Honestly, a good day would’ve been placing in the top eight,” Mosley Jr. said. “We weren’t even supposed to make it to finals. We were counted out as an underdog story, 14th coming into nationals. Just placing 8th would’ve been a dream of mine, but I was excited for us to get 4th.”
Elsewhere, Palmer High School graduate Awet Beraki’s first-place finish helped Adams State to a third-place finish. Beraki earned a time of 14:13.69 in the 5,000-meter run two days after finishing second in the 10,000-meter competition.
CSU Pueblo (24 pts) and UCCS (19 pts) finished in 13th and 17th place, respectively. Notable individual results from Saturday are below.
| EVENT | ATHLETE(S) | SCHOOL | PLACE | RESULT |
| Women’s Shot Put | Katherine Higgins | CSU Pueblo | 2nd | 15.66m |
| Men’s Shot Put | Nathaniel Miller | CSU Pueblo | 2nd | 18.89m |
| Men’s Shot Put | Justin Jenks | CSU Pueblo | 4th | 18.28m |
| Women’s 1500m | Kate Hedlund | UCCS | 7th | 4:39.46 |
| Men’s 1500m | Jagger Zlotoff | UCCS | 7th | 3:54.86 |
| Men’s 1500m | Evan Graff | UCCS | 11th | 3:56.75 |
| Women’s 100m hurdles | Missy Moreni | UCCS | 7th | 13.6 |
| Women’s 800m | Helen Braybrook | CSU Pueblo | 2nd | 2:07.72 |
| Men’s 800m | Reece Sharman-Newell | CSU Pueblo | 2nd | 1:47.21 |
| Men’s 800m | Kaleb Tipton | CSU Pueblo | 6th | 1:48.54 |
| Men’s 200m | Justice Mendoza | UCCS | 6th | 20.63 |
| Women’s 5000m | Anna Fauske | UCCS | 19th | 17:35.56 |