Several Chadron State College track and field athletes tuned up for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships that the Eagles will host this weekend by going to meets at either South Dakota Mines or Colorado Mines last Friday.
Throwers went north to Rapid City and track participants, most of them distance runners, went south to Golden. The remaining Eagles continued to train at home last weekend.
In several instances, the throwers had their best marks of the season at South Dakota Mines. That included all-star Kyla Sawvell, who won the shot put and hit 46-feet, 6 inches to improve her best of the season by 7 ½ inches. However, her best may be yet to come.
During the 2023 indoor season, Sawvell threw the shot more than 50 feet twice, and the Iron balls weigh the same indoors and outdoors. She hit 50-10 while placing second at the RMAC Indoor Championships and threw 50-4 while winning the bronze medal at the NCAA II Indoor Championships.
A senior from Wall, S.D., Sawvell also won both the discus and hammer throws at Rapid City. Her winning discus toss was 126 feet even, while she had sailed it 138-11 in late March at CSU-Pueblo. Her first place hammer throw Friday measured 180-8, which is her second best mark of the season.
Sawvell’s top hammer throw this spring also was at Pueblo about a month ago and carried 182-10. In addition, that mark will be leading the RMAC entering the conference meet that begins Friday in Chadron.
She also added nine feet to her best javelin throw of the season, but her mark of 101-8 placed fourth last Friday and is not expected to qualify for the conference showdown.
Chadron State won two of the men’s throws at the South Dakota Mines’ Meet.
Shane Collins, the junior from Bison, S.D., who set the RMAC hammer throw record of 203-2 at last year’s conference meet, won that event at 194-9, adding 17 inches to his previous 2023 best. The latter mark is also the RMAC best entering this weekend’s action.
Also, Parker Gonser of Windsor, Colo., won the discus at 148-11, about 2 ½ feet shy of his season best. Collins placed third in the discus at Mines with a throw of 137-5, exactly the same as his previous season-best.
Gonser was the runner-up in the shot put with his season-best of 47-11 ¼.
Two CSC freshmen who went to the Colorado Mines Meet improved on their season bests, but the competition was stiff and none of the Eagles placed higher than fourth. Cole Perkins lowered his 200 time to 22.60 and Nate Mann cut eight seconds off his 1500 time, dropping it to 4:02.39.
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unior Emory Yoosook was fourth in the long jump, but his mark of 21-6 ¼ did not qualify him for the conference meet.
CSC results at South Dakota Mines:
Women’s Results
Shot put—1, Kyla Sawvell, 46-6; 5, Trinity Chrisawn, 38-1 ½.
Discus—1, Kyla Sawvell, 126-0; 6, Courtney Smith, 115-7.
Hammer throw—1, Kyla Sawvell, 180-8; 2, Courtney Smith, 154-9; 5, Madyson Schliep, 149-7; 6, Trinity Chrisawn, 143-9.
Javelin—3, Lamara Castanedo, 104-9; 4, Kyla Sawvell, 101-8; 6, Morgan Ekwall, 63-3.
Men’s Results
Shot put—2, Parker Gonser, 47-11 ¼; 6, Chris Jennings, 41-3 ¼.
Discus—1, Parker Gonser, 148-11; 3, Shane Collins, 137-5; 6, Christopher Jennings, 126-2.
Hammer throw—1, Shane Collins, 194-4; 6, Parker Gonser, 156-6.
CSC results at Colorado Mines:
Men’s Results
200—5, Kadin Perez, 22.53; 6, Cole Perkins, 22.60.
400—5, Kyland Fuller, 51.9.
4×100 relay—3, Chadron State (Emory Yoosook, Jack Ward, Cole Perkins, Kadin Perez), 43.15.
Long jump—4, Emory Yoosook, 21-6 ¼.