COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Colorado State University Pueblo men's indoor track and field team sent a small contingent of student-athletes to compete in five events here Saturday at the Colorado Running Company UCCS Invitational held at Mountain Lion Fieldhouse on the UCCS campus.
The Pack men's team competed in three track events (60-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash) and two field events (weight throw and shot put).
At Saturday's first meet of the 2024 calendar year, the ThunderWolves did take home a win in the shot put and had two other Top 5 finishes in the weight throw and the 400-meter run.
The lone event win on Saturday came in the shot put as sophomore
Leonardo Ramos (Denver, Colo./Far Northeast) recorded a throw of 15.55 meters (51-0.25") to win first place honors. In addition to Ramos, sophomore
Felipe Castro Engel (Santiago, Chile, Mount Mercy) was seventh in the shot put with a mark of 13.41 meters (44-0), while junior
Lukas Moran (Pueblo, Colo./Pueblo West) was 14th with a mark of 12.31 meters (40-4.75") and sophomore Kobe Ballwag (Aurora, Colo./Grandview) was 15th with a mark of 12.08 meters (39-7.75").
In addition to Ramos' win in the shot, he was also fourth in the weight throw with a mark of 15.68 meters (51-5.50"), while Moran was sixth with a mark of 15.27 meters (50-1.25") and Castro Engel was 11th with a mark of 14.16 meters (46-5.50").
Meanwhile, in the track events, the top performance came from junior
Mario Franco (Colorado Springs, Colo./Cheyenne Mountain) as he finished third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.96. In addition to France, sophomore
Cesar Sanchez Acosta (Pueblo, Colo./Pueblo East) was eighth with a time of 59.31.
In the 60-meter preliminaries, sophomore
Evan Johnson (Aurora, Colo./Grandview) was 14th in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.20, while freshman
Mekhi Hubbard (Fountain, Colo./Mesa Ridge) was 16th with a season-best time of 7.21. His time is the second best this season for the Pack as Johnson recorded a season-best 7.17 at the UCCS Pre-Holiday Invite & Multi.
Hubbard was the top Pack finisher in the 200-meter dash as he recorded a time of 24.18, while Franco was 20th with a time of 24.97 and Sanchez Acosta was 23rd with a time of 25.60.
The Pack will continue its indoor track and field season next weekend (Jan. 26-27) as they travel to Albuquerque, N.M., to compete at the University of New Mexico Team Open.
