GOLDEN, Colo. --- South Dakota School of Mines junior Jack Batho, IV took top honors Saturday during the men's shot put at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Indoor Championships in Golden, Colo.

Batho, a Mechanical Engineering major from Omaha, Neb., delivered his best performance of the season with a throw of 17.15 meters which improved on his previous mark of 16.46 meters earlier this season which also bettered his provisional qualifying mark to the NCCA Div. II Indoor Championships March 9-11, in Pittsburg, Kan.

SD Mines freshman Cody Allen and Logan McGough also placed in the RMAC shot put. Allen took fifth place with a throw of 15.66 meters and McGough registered a mark of 14.51 to secure eighth place.

Also placing on Day 2 of the Indoor Championships was sophomore Ty Nickerson during the men's pole vault event. He cleared a height of 4.72 to take eighth place in the event.

With the strong showing in the men's shot put event, the Hardrockers finished the RMAC meet with 29 total points and finished in ninth place. Colorado School of Mines earned the top spot in the team standings with 151.50 points, UCCS earned second with 90.50, Western State was third with 86 and Adams State secured fourth with 72.

The Hardrocker women's team finished with four points over the two-day event and took a share of 11^th place with Westminster College and MSU Denver. UCCS won the women's division with 118 points, Western State took second with 117, Adams State secured third with 102 and New Mexico Highlands landed in fourth with 99 points.

RMAC Day 1 Recap

The South Dakota School of mines weights throwers delivered some solid performances Friday during the first day of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Indoor Championships hosted by Colorado School of Mines in Golden Colo.

Hardrocker junior Jack Batho earned a second-place finish during the men's weight throw after a toss of 18.52 meters. The top throw was from Chadron State's Jesse Bleidt who took the RMAC title with a mark of 1854 meters. Batho's throw on Friday is a provisional qualifying mark, but the Omaha, Neb., native has a distance of 18.77 set earlier in the season.

Hardrocker junior Jayla Jarnagin set a new school record in the women's weight throw during the event Friday. She registered a throw of 16.22 meters to set the new SD Mines mark and notched a fifth-place finish at the RMAC meet.

Sophomore Wyatt Kainz also earned some team points for SD Mines when the Hardrocker from Dickinson, N.D., cleared a height of 1.98 meters during the men's high jump to secure sixth place.


 
 RMAC Meet Preview
RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The 2018 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) men's and women's indoor track and field championships will begin the first day of competition Friday starting at 9 a.m. (MST) at the Steinhauer Fieldhouse in Golden, Colo., and continue through Saturday, the two-day event hosted by Colorado School of Mines will feature 12 men's programs and 13 women's programs competing for the conference titles.

With the brand new qualifying system to earn a berth the conference championships, the South Dakota School of Mines have qualified 19 individuals on the men's team and eight on the women's side. This year, the RMAC takes the Top 18 marks in the conference for each event.

"We are very excited to see how many athletes we have competing in the RMAC meet under the new qualifying system," said Hardrocker track and field head coach Jerry Schafer. "The credit for our success goes to the hard work our athletes have put in and to the quality of our coaching staff. 

"Most of these athletes began training at the end of last August when they arrived on campus and the RMAC Indoor Championship will be like their mid-term test, with the final exam coming in April at the Outdoor Championships."

Along with the RMAC meet, the Hardrockers also have two athletes that have provisionally qualified for the NCAA Div. II Indoor Championships, which will be held March 9-11 in Pittsburg, Kan.

SD Mines junior Jack Batho, IV is provisionally qualified in both the men's weight throw and men's shot put. The Mechanical Engineering major from Omaha, Neb., has a season-best throw of 16.46-meters in the shot put, which ranks him fourth in the RMAC and is listed as second in the weight throw with a mark of 18.76.

Hardrocker freshman Erica Keeble has a provisional qualification in the women's pole vault after she cleared a height of 3.58 meters last weekend at a meet in Spearfish. That height set a new school record for the De Pere, Wis. Native and she is ranked fourth heading into the RMAC Championships. Keeble, a Computer Sciences and Applied Mathematics major, will also be racing in the women's 60-meter dash, ranked 18^th with a season-best time of 8.02.

"Our throws coaches, Tyg Long and Jim Stephens, have seven of our nine throwers qualified into the meet with five in the weight throw and six in the shot put," Shafer said. "Assistant coach Ross Pfeifle has done a great job in the pole vault where we have three athletes competing this weekend. Two others missed out from getting into the meet on a tiebreaker."

The Hardrockers also have four relay teams that will be competing this weekend. On the men's side the 4x400 relay squad (Jonathan Murray, Kevin Ptak, Korder Crospey and Andrew Ferris) is ranked eighth with a time of 3:21.78; and the distance medley relay team (Chase Wood, Jake Huber, Ptak and Ben Colvin) are sitting in ninth place with a mark of 10:28.15.

On the women's side, the 4x400 team (Kaelyn Kaul, Adeline Straatmeyer, Kayla Gagen, Alexia Hodgson) are 12^th in the standings with a time of 4:19.04; and the women's distance medley relay team (Ryley Sutton, Hodgson, Gagen and Straatmeyer) are listed 10^th in the rankings with a time of 13:11.34.

"Thanks to assistant coach Steve Johnson's efforts, two distance runners, the men's and women's distance medley relays team, along with four jumpers are in the meet in the high jump, long jump and triple jump events," Schafer added. "We have several sprinters and a hurdler qualified in their events along with men's and women's 4x400 relays teams.  Assistant coach Shannon Reed has been an important part of preparing these athletes for this competition --- especially our hurdlers."
The championship (Prelims/Finals) will be streamed live on the RMAC Network. Fans can get access to live results here.
 
Women's Qualifiers

Name	Year	Event	Seed Time
Dahlberg, Tana	Fr.	High Jump	1.51 m
Gagen, Kayla	So.	4x400 Meter Relay	4:19.04
Gagen, Kayla	So.	Distance Medley	13:11.34
Hodgson, Alexia	So.	4x400 Meter Relay	4:19.04
Hodgson, Alexia	So.	Distance Medley	13:11.34
Jarnagin, Jayla	Jr.	Shot Put	12.28 m
Jarnagin, Jayla	Jr.	Weight Throw	14.88 m
Kaul, Kaelyn	So.	4x400 Meter Relay	4:19.04
Kaul, Kaelyn	So.	Distance Medley	13:11.34
Keeble, Erica	Fr.	60 Meter Dash	8.02
Keeble, Erica	Fr.	Pole Vault	3.58 m
Straatmeyer, Adeline	Jr.	4x400 Meter Relay	4:19.04
Sutton, Ryley	Sr.	Distance Medley	13:11.34

Men's Qualifiers

Name	Year	Event	Seed Time
Allen, Cody	Fr.	Weight Throw	14.30 m
Allen, Cody	Fr.	Shot Put	15.10 m
Batho, Jack	Jr.	Shot Put	16.46 m
Batho, Jack	Jr.	Weight Throw	18.76 m
Cropsey, Korder	So.	200 Meter Dash	22.66
Cropsey, Korder	So.	4x400 Meter Relay	3:21.78
Ferris, Andrew	Fr.	800 Meter Run	1:55.13
Ferris, Andrew	Fr.	4x400 Relay	10:28.15
Gonzales, Jeremy	Fr.	60 Meter Dash	7.11
Huber, Jacob	Jr.	Distance Medley	10:28.15
Jackson, Jayvon	Jr.	Weight Throw	15.04
Kainz, Wyatt	So.	High Jump	1.90 m
Kasuske, Carter	Jr.	High Jump	1.87 m
Mason, Jordan	Jr.	60 Meter Hurdles	8.68
McGough, Logan	Fr.	Shot Put	14.28 m
Murray, Jonathon	Jr.	400 Meter Dash	49.82
Murray, Jonathon	Jr.	4x400 Meter Relay	3:21.78
Nickerson, Ty	So.	Pole Vault	4.58 m
Nissen, Darren	So.	Long Jump	6.65 m
Nissen, Darren	So.	Triple Jump	12.78 m
Ptak, Kevin	So.	4x400 Meter Relay	3:21.56
Ptak, Kevin	So.	Distance Medley	10:28.15
Siebdrath, Westley	So.	Shot Put	13.99 m
Siebdrath, Westley	So.	Weight Throw	15.53 m
Skillingstad, Casey	Jr.	Pole Vault	4.52 m
Swanson, Matt	Fr.	Shot Put	13.39 m
Thompson, Kevin	Jr.	60 Meter Dash	7.07
Thompson, Kevin	Jr.	200 Meter Dash	22.86
Wood, Chase	So.	Distance Medley	10:28.15