The Fort Lewis College track and field teams showed they have the speed to compete with the best in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in Golden from Friday to Sunday.
Freshman Brody Hubbard, sophomore Zachary Gaumont and sophomore Alliyah Molina earned All-RMAC honors for their performances at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Hubbard finished third in the men’s 1,500-meter final on Sunday in four minutes and 2.64 seconds; he earned first team All-RMAC for his performance. Reece Sharman-Newell from CSU Pueblo won the race in four minutes and Jagger Zlotoff from UCCS finished second in 4:01.55.
“Brody ran like a veteran,” FLC cross country/track and field head coach Dalton Graham said. “Being a true freshman, you never know how they're going to handle a prelim and tactical racing … So he positioned himself perfectly on the outside of lane one and inside of lane two and kind of hovered in that third to fifth spot throughout the first 1,000 meters of the race in the final and was able to close extremely fast with a 3:53-miler and a 4:00-miler to get third.”
The 1,500 was a tactical race because a lot of the top runners had already qualified for nationals so they were just looking to score points for their schools and not exert a lot of effort. This slowed down the pace early before Hubbard finished strong.
Graham said Hubbard did well in the prelims by running the slowest auto qualifying time, which is the ideal position because he did the least amount of work to get in the final.
Hubbard didn’t earn any accolades in the indoor season and Graham is proud of his growth. Graham said a lot of Hubbard’s improvement has come from increased confidence and fitness training at altitude.
Gaumont finished fourth in the men’s 100 final in 10.56 and earned second team All-RMAC. Mateo Casados from Colorado Mesa won the race in 10.43.
It was a somewhat disappointing result for Gaumont, which won the 60 indoor conference championship and tied for the fastest 100 time in the regular season. But Gaumont has been dealing with a hamstring issue which affected him during the race and has affected him at different times during the season.
On the women’s side, Molina finished second in the women’s 10,000 final on Friday in 36:24.11. Anna Fauske from UCCS finished first in 36:14.05 and UCCS’ Kseniya Nikanorov finished third in 36:31.39.
“The performances from the women's side were definitely high quality,” FLC track and field associate head coach Gracen Key said. “Alliyah walking away with runner-up status in the 10k and two of my middle distance girls both walked away with personal bests … You always want your last meet of the season to be the best one. You don't always get that, but it was definitely a really nice cherry on top of the season.”
Key said she was shocked at how uncompetitive the 10,000 final was, with many girls not racing very fast and Molina having to pace herself throughout a lot of the race. Key thought some of the other fast women in the RMAC in the 10,000 would go for it and try and qualify for nationals, but they didn’t. Key was proud of how Molina paced herself and how tough she was in difficult circumstances.
Hubbard and Molina can qualify for nationals at the CSU Pueblo Last Chance Meet on Saturday or at the Azusa Pacific Last Chance Meet in Azusa, California, on May 9-10.
The top 22 athletes in Division II track and field make it to the national championships. Hubbard will have to run at least 3.5 seconds faster in one of the last chance meets. Graham is confident it can happen if he’s in a race that’s more paced.
Molina has to make up about eight seconds to get into the top 22. Key thinks it’s very feasible since the 10,000 is a 35-minute race.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
