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Colorado State Sends Eight to the NCAA Championship
Smith named Mountain District Outdoor Female Athlete of the Year.
June 7, 2004
Complete Release in PDF Format
NCAA Preview: Colorado State sends eight to the NCAA Championship in Austin, Texas. The Rams had four qualify through NCAA Regional competition, one provisionally qualify by time, and three receive at-large bids into the championship. Junior Loree Smith will be competing in both the discus and the hammer, while sophomore Haley Hunt joins her in the hammer and senior Keela Niemeyer joins Smith in the discus. Freshman Magnus Lohse will throw the shot put and junior Mike Nicks will compete in the steeplechase after winning the NCAA Regional title. Seniors John Woods and Austin Vigil will run in the 200 meters and 10,000 meters, respectively and junior Cristina Gourdin will compete in the heptathlon for the Rams. Niemeyer and Nicks will be headed to the NCAA Championship for the second straight season, while Smith returns after competing in 2002. Honored: Loree Smith was named the Mountain District Outdoor Female Athlete of the Year by the United States Track Coaches Association. Smith won the award after being ranked in the top five all season in both the hammer and discus events. She also won the hammer at the NCAA Midwest Regional meet and will compete in both events at the NCAA Championship. Smith holds both the school and Mountain West Conference records in the hammer and the Mountain West record in the discus. She is the second CSU award winner in as many years, as former Ram standout Drew Loftin won the men's award last season. A Season For The Records: Six records have fallen by the wayside this season, five on the women's side and one men's record were broken. Magnus Lohse broke the shot put record for the second time this season with his throw of 61-0.25 at the NCAA Midwest Regional. He breaks his own record of 60-7.25 from the first meet of the season on April 27. Freshman Janay DeLoach jumped 20-1.75 in the long jump at the Cardinal Invitational to break the previous record of 20-0 held by Kelly Delph from 1990. Senior Christine Ahn broke her own school record in the pole vault for the second time this season after clearing 12-9.5 at the Air Force Twilight. She breaks her record of 12-8 from the Jack Christiansen Invitational. Loree Smith broke the school and Mountain West record in the hammer for the two straight weeks after winning the Texas Relays with a throw of 220-0. She breaks the old record of 193-10 held by Shelly Borrman from 1998. Sophomore Amanda Huddleston broke her own record in the triple jump, leaping 40-9.5 at the Mountain West Conference Championship. Her old record of 40-0.75 came back on April 6, 2002. The other record to fall this season was the women's 4x100 meter relay. The quartet of sophomore Candace Lelo, DeLoach, junior Katrice Thomas and freshman Megan Fox ran a 46.31 at the Nebraska Invitational on April 17 to break the old record of 46.56 held by Eileen Amador, Carisa Wherry, Christine Reaux and Kadeisha Hilliard from 1995. We Are The Champions: Junior Mike Nicks won the steeplechase at the NCAA Midwest Regional, running a 9:02.32 to beat Soeren Lindner of SMU by 0.67 seconds. Junior Loree Smith won the hammer throw, setting the midwest regional record with her toss of 198-8. Sophomore Haley Hunt surprised the field, finishing second behind Smith with a personal best throw of 195-5. The men's team finished in 11th place at the regional meet with 25 points, while the women were eighth with 28 points. Throwers Take Title: According to The Thrower's Page, a website dedicated solely to the throwing events in track & field, the Rams are the number one ranked team in the nation. Using the descending Division I order lists, the Rams earned 31.6 points, 16.0 for men and 15.6 for women, to beat out second place Florida, which tallied 29.5 points. The Rams also finished first in the hammer throw, first in the discus throw and third in the shot put. They were first among men's teams and third among women's teams for the combined first-place ranking. We Are The Champions, II: John Woods won both the 100 and 200 meters at the Mountain West Championship, winning both for the second time in his career, after doing so in 2002. Woods also won the third straight title for the Rams in the 200 meters after Chris Riggs was victorious in 2003. The 4x100 meter men's relay team was also victorious. The quartet of freshman Rodnee Pope, freshman Denny Majerus, junior Brandon Kent and Woods won the second-ever relay title for the men, along with the 2002 squad. On the women's side, Loree Smith won both the discus and hammer events and was second in the shot put. Woods won the high point award for the second time this season after amassing 22.5 points in his three events. 2003 NCAA Recap: Looking back to one year ago, the Rams fared well at the 2003 NCAA Championship. The Rams sent eight student-athletes (Keela Niemeyer, Meg Larson, Drew Loftin, Adam Trainor, Brian Trainor, Mike Nicks, Paul Michel and Dylan Olchin) to Sacramento. Niemeyer finished 17th in the shot put and 23rd in the discus, while Larson was 24th in the steeplechase. Loftin placed second in the hammer and seventh in the discus, earning All-American status in both events. Adam Trainor was 23rd in the hammer, while his brother Brian was 18th in the discus. Michel placed 25th in the 1500 meters and Nicks finished 14th in the steeplechase. Well Represented: At the NCAA Championship, June 9-12, the Mountain West Conference will be extremely well represented. There is just one event on the women's side (shot put) where there will not be a MWC representative. In the steeplechase, 400 meter hurdles and hammer there will be three each from the league, while 11 of the 20 events have multiple student-athletes from the conference entered. On the men's side 13 of the 20 events have student-athletes from the league entered, with eight having multiple entries. The steeplechase, 10,000 meters and pole vault all have three league contestants. All-Conference: A total of 20 Colorado State student-athletes were named to the 2004 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field All-Conference team. The good news for Ram fans is 14 of those have eligibility remaining for next season. To be named to the all-conference team, a student-athlete must finish in the top three at the conference championship or be a member of the winning relay team. An asterisk (*) indicates a repeat outdoor all-conference selection. Athletes of the Week: Loree Smith was honored by the Mountain West Conference office three times this season as the Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Week. Smith earned the honors on March 31, April 7 and April 22 after breaking at least one record in each of the three weeks. Senior Christine Ahn was named the final women's outdoor athlete of the week (May 11) after breaking the school record and clearing 12-9.5 at the Air Force Twilight. Qualified for Trials: Loree Smith has met the qualifying standard in the hammer and surpassed the provisional mark in the discus for the USA Olympic Team Trials, which will be held July 9-18 at Sacramento State. She is the only current student-athlete to qualify, but several former athletes will be in Sacramento next month. Bryan Berryhill in the 1500 meters, Brian Trainor and Casey Malone in the discus, Drew Loftin in the hammer and Megan Addy in the 400 meter hurdles have all qualified to compete for a spot on the 2004 USA Olympic team.
Qualified for Juniors: Four Rams have qualified for the USA Junior
Outdoor Track & Field Championships in seven events. To be eligible,
athletes must be at least 14 years old on the day of competition but not
turn 20 years old during 2004. They must also meet the qualifying
standard in their respective events. Freshman Janay DeLoach has
qualified in both the 100 meters and long jump, while Megan Fox has
qualified in both the 200 and 400 meters. Freshman Katie Lloyd has also
surpassed the qualifying standard in the heptathlon. On the men's side,
Drew Morano has qualified in both the 200 and 400 meters.
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