SPEARFISH, S.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines men's and women's track and field teams started the outdoor portion of its schedule this past weekend competing at the Black Hills State Yellow Jacket Spring Invite in Spearfish, South Dakota.

The Hardrockers had some great individual performances during the event,  breaking three SD Mines school records, had eight first-place finishes, 11 personal-best records, 29 Top 5 finishes and one provisional qualification to the NCAA Div. II Outdoor Championships.

"We were pretty happy with the way the meet went Friday and Saturday. We saw some very solid opening performances and are excited about what it means for the rest of the season," said Hardrocker track and field head coach Steve Johnson.

Erica Keeble picked up on the outdoor season after a stellar indoor season. The sophomore pole vaulter provisional qualified for NCAA Div. II Outdoor Championships after winning the women's pole vault Saturday. Keeble cleared a height of 3.75 meters (12-feet-3.5-inches) to earn top honors as well as break her own school record (11-7.75) in the process. Keeble, who won the RMAC indoor women's pole vault and set an RMAC meet record, is currently ranked first in the RMAC and sixth in the nation.
 
Jonathon Murray also had a great start to the outdoor season over the weekend with three event titles. He grabbed a first-place finish in the 400 dash (49.04) and then as a member of the 4x100 relay team that took first followed by anchoring the 4x400 relay team that also registered a first-place finish. Murray is currently ranked third in the RMAC in the 400 dash. 

The SD Mines men's 4x400 relay team of Korder Crospey, Kevin Ptak, Andrew Ferris and Murray won the event in a time of 3:20.76 seconds and the Hardrockers' 4x100 team, made up of Cropsey, Jeremey Gonzales, Murray and Ptak won the race in a time of 42.53.

The women's 4x100 team won its race in a time of 50.77 and set a new school record as well. That squad consisted of Faith Chambers, Annalie Janus, Katherine Mathieu and Keeble. They broke the old record of 51.19 set in 2017.

Adeline Straatmeyer also started out with a strong start to the season with a second-place finish during the women's 5K race, clocking a time of 18:28.25, which also set a new school record. The old record was held by Jill Dale from 1989 with a mark of 19:11.40.

Other Hardrocker event winners included: Andrew Ferris took first in the men's 800 run (1:55.69); Westley Siebdrath won the men's hammer throw after a toss of 51.11 meters; Darren Nissen leaped to a first-place finish in the men's long jump with a mark of 6.54 meters; and Casey Skillingstad won the men's division after clearing a height of 4.57 meters.

"Erica bounced back nicely from the national meet. We also saw Jonathon and Andy pick up where they left off indoors," Johnson said. "The 4x100 performances were a great start to Saturday's competition and it was great to see Addy finally break Jill Dale's 5K record. That's been one we've talked about for a long time, but we haven't had a lot of opportunities to go after it. The hammer throwers really kicked things off with a bunch of PRs and it was great to see Wes break the 50-meter barrier so early in the season."