Buffs Take To Mt. SAC Track

Walnut, Calif. - The University of Colorado track & field team is sending 23 of it's top athletes to the Mt. San Antonio College Relays here this week, where several Buffs will look to inflict damage on the CU school record book and earn NCAA regional qualifying marks.

Things will get underway for Colorado on Thursday afternoon, when sophomore Chase Mullen steps in the ring for the men's hammer throw. Mullen threw a personal best 196-7 last weekend at the Oregon Pepsi Invite, just two inches shy of the school record he'll try to best at Mt. SAC. He'll be followed by freshman Christine Bolf in the women's university open division of the 5,000 meter run. Classmates Casey Burchill and Brett Schoolmeester will toe the line in the men's open 5k following Bolf.

Kendall Grgas-Wheeler will participate in her first steeplechase of the season in the women's open 3K steeple at 5:10 p.m. She holds the third best mark in school history. Payton Batliner and Andy Knutsen will run the men's steeple, their first 3K steeple's of the season.

Tera Moody, the 1999 Big 12 10,000 meter outdoor champion, will compete in the women's open 10K at 7:30 p.m., followed by Matt McCue and Jon Severy in the men's open 10K. Hannah Warfield-Ruffato, the second-best javelin tosser in school history will throw during that time.

Just as the temperature at Mt. SAC starts dropping, the races on the track will heat up with the women's invitational 5,000 meters at 8:45 p.m. It was at Mt SAC in 2000 that then-junior Kara Grgas-Wheeler set the school record of 15:28.79 en route to a sweep of the 5K and 3K titles at the 2000 NCAA Championships later that year. Sara Gorton will try to best Grgas-Wheeler's mark on the same track after running 15:39 indoors in Fayetteville in March en route to a 5K indoor title.

She'll be followed by freshman Billy Nelson, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year in cross country, in the men's open 5K. He'll be followed by Dathan Ritzenhein in the men's invitational 5K at 9:30 p.m. Ritzenhein is in just his second weekend of competition after a 10-month injury hiatus which led to redshirting both cross country and indoor track this year.

The women's 10,000 meters invitational heat will be the second-to-last event of the evening, and Colorado will have three entries. Brianna Torres, Natalie Florence and Molly Austin will all run their first 10k's of the year. Austin is a two-time All-American in the event and is the school record holder in the event. The Buff trio will be joined by the former Grgas-Wheeler, now Goucher, as she takes to the track for her first competitive race in two years in her first 10,000.

Ed Torres will compete in the nightcap, the men's 10,000 meters. Torres' PR in the event is 28:43.28, which he ran at Stanford last season. This will mark his first meet of the outdoor season.

More Buffs will be in action on Thursday evening, including Jorge Torres in the 1,500 meters.