Track and Field
The UCCS Track and Field team opened the outdoor season at the Dr. Dan Caprioglio Early Bird Invite hosted by Colorado State University-Pueblo. The Mountain Lions walked away with ten podium finishes and two gold medals.
This was the Javelin athletes’ first competition of the year, led by redshirt junior Sawyer Christopher, who finished second with a 57.83m throw. Christopher received the first RMAC Outdoor Track Athlete of the week for his performance, which ranks first in the RMAC by more than seven meters. Three other UCCS athletes competed in the javelin: redshirt junior Seth Richmond earned fourth, sophomore Joseph Hamilton took sixth and redshirt junior Daniel Furcron placed 11th.
Redshirt junior Dillon Andrews won the first UCCS gold in the men’s 400m hurdle, followed by freshman Skyler Hawk who won the women’s 400m hurdle. Fellow freshman Leyah Martinez followed Hawk in a close second.
The Track and Field team will return to CSU-P on March 24-25 to compete in the Spank Blasing Invitational.
Golf
After a third-place team finish and an individual champion at their last tournament, the women’s golf team traveled to Pebble Beach, CA, to compete in the Dallas Baptist University Poppy Hills Patriot Invitational. Last week’s champion and previous RMAC Women’s Golfer of the Week junior, Emily Shimkus, tied for 34th place in the 81-person competition. The Mountain Lions finished the tournament 13th out of 15 teams.
Baseball
The baseball team won the first game of a four-game away series against Metropolitan State University Denver (4-4 RMAC, 19-7) last week, with sophomore Macully Sehr scoring a homerun off the second pitch of the game. The game was tied 1-1 until the Mountain Lions scored three runs in the seventh and eighth innings to win the series opener 4-3.
UCCS struggled for the remainder of the series, having been outscored 30-5 in the final three contests. The series’ third game was close, with MSU leading 3-0 after the second inning. The Mountain Lions got to work in the fourth inning, scoring two runs to close MSU’s lead down to one run. However, they could not secure the win in the last inning, leading to a 3-4 loss.
The Mountain Lion’s next home game is against Northern Colorado on March 28 at noon.
Softball
The Mountain Lions traveled to Grand Junction to face Colorado Mesa University (17-2 RMAC, 19-8) in a pair of doubleheaders over the weekend where the Mavericks swept the series in a tight contest.
First game UCCS stayed close in hits, earning six to CMU’s seven. However, despite the base hits, they could not find home plate, losing 4-0. Junior Mia Perez went 2-3 in the game with one walk.
The Mountain Lions had a better offensive game in the second, scoring three runs early and holding the lead until the fourth inning. However, the Mavericks regained the lead with a two-RBI double and a two-run home run to seal the first doubleheader.
The last two games showed the Mountain Lion’s defensive weaknesses with two more shutout games. The Mountain Lions softball team will travel to Alamosa, CO, to face Adams State (3-15 RMAC, 6-23) in two doubleheaders on March 24-25.
Photo from gomountainlions.com.