SPEASRFISH, S.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines men's and women's indoor track and field teams posted some very impressive results this past weekend during the Black Hills State Dave Little Invitational at the Lyle Hare Center in Spearfish, South Dakota.

The Hardrockers registered 27 Top 5 finishes, recorded nine personal-best records, had six event winners, bettered three school records and notched one new provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA Div. II Indoor Championships next month.

Erica Keeble improved her provisional qualifying mark in the women's pole vault Saturday clearing a height of 3.85 meters which was good enough for first place in the event. That mark also improved on Keeble's school record that she set earlier this season. Keeble ranks first on the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference performance list and is sixth in the nation. Keeble also took third place during the women's 60-meter dash clocking an 8.09 in the finals.

 The men's and women's distance medley relay teams both earned new school records during this weekend's meet. The men's DMR team, consisting of Chase Wood, Jonathon Murray, Andrew Ferris and Jacob Huber set a Hardrocker record with a time of 10:27.58 and took second place in the event. The old record was 10:28.15 (Wood, Kevin Ptak, Ben Colvin, Huber).

The women's DMR team, which also placed second at the meet, earned a new SD Mines all-time mark, clocking a 12:50.01. Erica Westerman, Kayla Gagen, Katherine Mathieu and Adeline Staatmeyer made up the team.

Other Hardrocker event winners, included: Straatmeyer in the women's mile run (5:29.60); Jeremy Gonzales took top honors in the men's 60 dash, notching a 7.19 in the preliminaries and then clocked a 7.15 as the fastest time in the finals; Murray took home first place during the 400 dash in a time of 50.89; Casey Skillingstad cleared a height of 4.43 meter in the men's pole vault to win the event; and Westley Siebdrath secured first during the men's weight throw after a toss of 16.04 meter.

"We had a pretty good couple of days. The throwers and our DMR teams set the tone on Friday and we were able to continue to build on that Saturday," said Hardrocker track and field head coach Steve Johnson. "Erica had a fantastic day in the vault and it was clear that she has a lot more in her. Chase Wood and Erica Westerman put a great couple of days together as both started with school records in the DMR and followed up with season bests in their open events on Saturday. This weekend moved a number of athletes up on the RMAC performance list, but we still have work to do."