Jones Downs 42-Year-Old Record

BOULDER – Colorado track and field star Dani Jones knocked off her first individual school record in spectacular fashion Saturday at the Colorado Invitational, breaking the longest-standing women's school record.

The senior took down Mary Decker's 1978 800-meter school record of 2:05.29 in a time of 2:04.38, winning the race by more than five seconds. With altitude conversion her time drops to 2:03.57, good for second on the NCAA descending order lists.

"It took long enough, but it's a great feeling," said Jones when asked about her first school record. "I mean, normally records aren't something you think about you just go out there and try and run your hardest and then hope that it's like a bonus when your coach comes up to you and says that's an indoor record. We just have such a good history that to be on the all-time list anywhere is a pretty big deal. Even though your coaches go up to you and kind of laugh at you saying, 'Oh, you don't have a school record yet, despite like how successful you've been.' I think it's important to remember how big a deal it is when you look on these walls and you see all the pictures of all these women and how good they've been after they left, so it's a big deal."

She now owns four marks in the top-three in school history, bettered only by Jenny Simpson or Emma Coburn in those four disciplines. Jones will next compete on the national stage in the Millrose Games in New York next weekend.

"I think this is a good way to get ready for it," said Jones on the upcoming meet. "It's fun to be here with your home crowd, and when we go there you know no one's going to know your name. I'm going with the same mentality. I was really nervous about this race because it meant a lot. I'll go into Millrose the same way, I just wanted to run hard and hope that my training has paid off."

Another Colorado senior put up the second-best time in the nation at altitude as Makena Morley broke her own facility record in the women's 3,000 by running 9:15.77. Her mark converts down to 9:00.17, good for second on the NCAA lists before today.

"My overall thoughts were that I wasn't totally thrilled with yesterday, but the weekend kind of wound up in a nice way," said Head Coach Mark Wetmore. "We gained a lot of momentum, Joe was great last night. We were kind of hoping Lalo could get a qualifying mark, but he's never been brilliant at elevation and he wasn't brilliant last night so now we have to take him down to sea level, and do it where he's good at it. Then the DMR was good, again, it wasn't brilliant but they ran a time that has always made it to the NCAA in the history of the NCAA so we feel good about that. As I said, today was a pretty good day overall. The women hurdlers look really strong once again, I saw some really nice 400-meter marks, Abbey Glynn I think ran her first indoor race ever and ran low 55s. The men look good in the 400 so that was all great. Dani, school record, it's her first school record. They get harder to get now, because there's some pretty good school records but she'll end up in the 2:03s when it comes out on the Monday NCAA lists. She's qualified for the NCAA. Makenna was brilliant, that's hard to do up here. The NCAA gives you 15 seconds but it's probably more. A year ago, she had a converted time and went and beat it when she went to sea level so I think it comes out to nine flat and she may go under nine later this year. Both relays we're good, 3:11 and 3:40, that's very good for early February. All in all, good weekend. I was particularly pleased in the men's 3,000, because we have a lot of rookies in there. Alec Hornecker, he's run one or two indoor 3,000s but nothing like that. He beat some All-Americans, he beat some guys that are already in the NCAA in the 5,000, and then behind him, probably lost to the fans were three freshmen running unattached, who ran really good times for us, huge improvements. They're great guys, they're going to be really big future people for us. So all in all, it was an exciting weekend."

The Colorado women were strong all-around, with Rachel McArthur finished second in the 800 at 2:09.83 and Karina Mann finishing in 2:10.81 for third. In the 400-meter dash, Abbey Glynn made her collegiate debut and trailed only former Buff Gabby Scott in the race, finishing in the sixth-best time in school history at 55.36. Scott reset her facility record to 53.42 in the win. Glynn also anchored the 4x400-meter relay of Dani Johnson, Valerie Welch and Eriana Henderson in a time of 3:40.76, making them the second-fastest team in CU history behind last year's MPSF squad.

The final strong mark for the women came in the 60-hurdles where Johnson became the second-fastest hurdler in CU history with a winning time of 8.32 seconds. Henderson was second at 8.51, while Welch was fourth in 8.58 seconds and Tamia Badal was fifth in 8.62 seconds.

On the men's side, Alec Hornecker led a large squad of Buffs in the men's 3,000. Hornecker took the win in 8:16.21, while Noah Hibbard, Hunter Appleton and Austin Vancil all competed unattached and finished under 8:27.

The men's 400 was a CU-based final with Aaron McCoy leaning out Ronald Sayles (who competed unattached), with McCoy winning in 47.41 seconds. Freshman Garrett Nelson was third at 47.83, while Kendal Smith finished fourth at 48.07 and Nathan Hoy was fifth in 48.10 seconds. Nelson, Smith, McCoy and Hoy came together to run 3:10.57 in the 4x400-meter relay, making them the third-best relay squad in CU history.

RESULTS
Men's 60: 1. Terrell Bradford (AFA) 6.83
Men's 200: 1. Terrell Bradford (AFA) 21.45; 10. Kellen Monestime (COLO) 22.31
Men's 400: 1. Aaron McCoy (COLO) 47.41; 3. Garrett Nelson (COLO) 47.83; 4. Kendal Smith (COLO) 48.07; 5. Nathan Hoy (COLO) 48.10
Men's 800: 1. Aric Kedge (AFA) 1:55.40; 3. Josh Ramos (COLO) 1:55.97; 4. Justice Ramos (COLO) 1:56.24
Men's Mile: 1. Thomas Chaston (CSU) 4:12.71; 11. Justice Ramos (COLO) 4:23.96
Men's 3000: 1. Alec Hornecker (COLO) 8:16.21; 12. Paxton Smith (COLO) 8:35.80; 20. Josh Torres (COLO) 8:53.47
Men's 5000: 1. Ryan Ioanidis (AFA) 15:04.00
Men's 60 Hurdles: 1. Kamal-Craig Golaube (UNAT) 8.10
Men's 4x400: 1. CSU 3:10.57; 2. Colorado 3:10.96 (Nelson, Smith, McCoy, Hoy)
Men's Shot Put: 1. Mariano Kis (CSU) 16.36m (53-8.25); 6. Henry Carlson (COLO) 14.55m (47-9); 9. Tyler Sconce (COLO) 13.80m (45-3.5); 11. Clayton Castro (COLO) 13.19m (43-3.25); 16. Austin Swanson (COLO) 11.91m (39-1); 17. Lars Atkinson (COLO) 11.08m (36-4.25); 18. Ryan Ganson (COLO) 9.93m (32-7)

Women's 60: 1. Briyana Bunson (CSU) 7.48
Women's 200: 1. Jessica Ozoude (UNAT) 24.37; 7. Tamia Badal (COLO) 25.81
Women's 400: 1. Gabby Scott (UNAT) 53.42 (FACILITY RECORD); 2. Abbey Glynn (COLO) 55.36; 4. Jaida Drame (COLO) 57.50
Women's 800: 1. Dani Jones (COLO) 2:04.38 (SCHOOL RECORD); 2. Rachel McArthur (COLO) 2:09.83; 3. Karina Mann (COLO) 2:10.81; 6. Annie Hill (COLO) 2:12.56;
Women's Mile: 1. Teri Brady (AFA) 5:10.07; 3. Olivia Brooks (COLO) 5:12.86
Women's 3000: 1. Makena Morley (COLO) 9:15.77 (FACILITY RECORD); 3. Holly Bent (COLO) 9:52.77; 6. Elizabeth Constien (COLO) 10:01.37; Kaitlyn Barthell (COLO) 10:12.48
Women's 5000: 1. Tansey Lystad (UNAT) 16:48.71 (FACILITY RECORD)
Women's 60 Hurdles: 1. Dani Johnson (COLO) 8.32; 2. Eriana Henderson (COLO) 8.51; 4. Valerie Welch (COLO) 8.58; 5. Tamia Badal (COLO) 8.62
Women's 4x400: 1. Colorado 3:40.76 (Johnson, Welch, Henderson, Glynn)
Women's Shot Put: 1. Maria Muzzio (CSU) 15.27m (50-1.25); 6. Lauren Whyrick (COLO) 12.56m (41-2.5); 12. Gya'ni Sami (COLO) 11.73m (38-6); 15. Elena Opp (COLO) 10.10m (33-1.75)

PREVIOUS RESULTS
Men's Seeded Mile: 1. Joe Klecker (COLO), 4:01.00 (State soil record); 2. Eduardo Herrera (COLO), 4:10.24
Men's High Jump: 1. Jeremy Cody (COLO), 2.04m (6-8.24)
Men's Pole Vault: 1. Andrew Barlow (UNAT) 5.00m (16-4.75)
Men's Long Jump: 1. Isa Bynum (CSU) 7.10m (23-3.5)
Men's Triple Jump: 1. Jefferson Danso (WYO) 13.63m (44-8.75)
Men's Weight Throw: 1. Kirk Unland (WYO) 18.64m (61-2); 5. Tyler Sconce (COLO) 16.88m (55-4.75); 8. Clayton Castro (COLO) 16.05m (52-8); 12. Lars Atkinson (COLO) 14.19m (46-6.75); 14. Austin Swanson (COLO) 10.28m (33-8.75)
Men's Heptathlon: 1. Andrew Ghizzone (UNAT) 4571; 2. Davis Butte (COLO) 4458

Women's Seeded Mile: 1. Mahala Norris (AFA) 4:56.03; 3. Annie Hill (COLO) 4:58.95
Women's DMR: 1. Colorado, 11:11.05
Women's High Jump: 1. Iesha Hamm (CSUF) 1.73m (5-8); 7. Kylee Harr (COLO) 1.63m (5-4.25)
Women's Pole Vault: 1. Celyn Stermer (CSU) 3.80m (12-5.5)
Women's Long Jump: 1. Aria Tate (CSU) 5.82m (19-1.25); 2. Eriana Henderson (COLO) 5.78m (18-11.75)
Women's Triple Jump: 1. Aumni Ashby (WYO) 11.86m (38-11)
Women's Weight Throw: 1. Ashton Hallsted (UNAT) 18.98m (62-3.25); 5. Gya'ni Sami (COLO) 15.83m (51-11.25); 12. Elena Opp (COLO) 14.71m (48-3.25); 13. Jane Powers (COLO) 14.64m (48-0.5); 17. Lauren Whyrick (COLO) 12.79m (41-11.5)
Women's Pentathlon: 1. Avery McMullen (COLO) 3914

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Hunter Appleton

Lars Atkinson

Tamia Badal

Kaitlyn Barthell

Holly Bent

Olivia Brooks

Davis Butte

Henry Carlson

Clayton Castro

Jeremy Cody

Elizabeth Constien

Jaida Drame

Ryan Ganson

Andrew Ghizzone

Abbey Glynn

Kylee Harr

Eriana Henderson

Eduardo Herrera

Noah Hibbard

Annie Hill

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Nathan Hoy

Dani Johnson

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Joe Klecker

Karina Mann

Rachel McArthur

Aaron McCoy

Avery McMullen

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Makena Morley

Garrett Nelson

Elena Opp

Jane Powers

Josh Ramos

Justice Ramos

Gya'ni Sami

Ronald Sayles

Tyler Sconce

Gabby Scott

Kendal Smith

Paxton Smith

Austin Swanson

Josh Torres

Austin Vancil

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