Grizzly senior Wayne Durham finished second in the javelin throw with a PR of 54.88 meters and helped put Adams State in a solid second place standing after the first day of the RMAC Championships.Lopers, Grizzlies ride javelin to top of RMAC Men's Track & Field standings
May 3, 2009Bubb leads decathlon, Western State into third
ALAMOSA, Colo.— The University of Nebraska-Kearney Lopers and the host Adams State College Grizzlies each placed three javelin throwers in the points as those two teams hold down the top spots in the early going of the 2009 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which got underway Sunday here at Rex Stadium and the throwing area north of Plachy Hall.
The Lopers, led by junior Brandon Karlin’s winning throw of 58.16 meters (190 feet, 10 inches), have 18 points while the Grizzlies, led by senior Wayne Durham’s (Sierra Vista, Ariz.) runner-up mark of 54.88 meters (180’1”) are in second with 14 after the first of three days of competition.
Karlin’s throw, which came on his first attempt, was the best in the RMAC this year and was less than a meter off the NCAA Division II Championship Provisional qualifying standard of 59.00 meters (193’7”).
Durham, the RMAC record holder in the decathlon, an event he is not contesting this year, had a strong overall series with five marks over 53 meters and set his new personal-best on his fifth attempt.
Western State College’s Jeremy Bubb, also the decathlon leader through Sunday’s five events, finished third with a toss of 54.75 meters (179’7”) and gave his Mountaineers six team points.
Nebraska-Kearney also had the fourth and sixth place javelin throw finishers in Austin Muench (54.05, 177’4”) and Rich Mourer (50.22m, 164’9”) while Grizzly sophomore Dusty Fairchild (Creede, Colo.) placed fifth with a personal-best throw of 52.66 meters (172’9”). Adams State teammate Roy Collins (Los Alamos, N.M.), also earned two points for the Grizzlies, in search of a third straight conference title, after he finished seventh with a throw of 48.11 meters (157’10”), edging University of Colorado-Colorado Springs sophomore Trevor Nau, who placed eighth while scoring one team point for the Mountain Lions, by one centimeter.
Collins was competing in the event for the first time in his career.
In the decathlon, Bubb won three of the five events contested on Sunday opening a 329-point lead over Chadron State College freshman Lincoln Proud, who moved into second ahead of senior teammate Jake Brummer after winning the day-closing 400 meters in 50.25 seconds.
Bubb, who has 3,651 points after finishing no lower than second in any of the day’s five disciplines, won the 100 meters in 11.07 seconds and the long jump with a leap of 6.67 meters (21’10 ¾”). After Brummer took the shot put portion with a heave of 11.29 meters (37’0 ½”), Bubb came back to win the high jump with a clearance of 1.90 meters (6’2 ¾”) and then finished second behind Proud in the 400 meters with a time of 50.47 seconds.
Proud now has 3,322 points while Brummer, who was in second for most of the day, has 3,178. UC-Colorado Springs freshmen Brian Hopkins and Rick Rimbert are fourth and fifth, respectively, with point totals of 3,166 and 3,077.
Garrett Holland of Western State is sixth with 3,055 points while Colorado School of Mines freshman Jim Hanafin stands seventh with 3,029.
Adams State sophomore Travis Phillips (Center, Colo.), competing in his first career decathlon, is eighth with 2,835 points while Colorado Mines sophomore Tim Popp is ninth with 2,528 points.
Phillips posted times of 12.04 and 53.75 seconds in the 100 and 400 meters and had marks of 6.43 meters (21’1 ¼”), 9.39 meters (30’9 ¾”) and 1.53 meters (5’0 ¼”) in the long jump, shot put and high jump disciplines in between.
All five efforts were either career-bests or the first time he contested the discipline competitively. He finished eighth in the 100 meters but tied with Rimbert for the second best long jump effort. He also finished sixth in both the shot put and 400 meters.
The meet resumes Monday at 9 a.m. with the 10,000-meter final. The second day of the decathlon will commence at 9:40 a.m.
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