Pack holds its own against elite competition

At the Division-I-rich New Mexico Classic at the University of New Mexico Saturday, the ThunderWolves landed two provisional qualifiers and a pair of individual top ten finishes.

In a meet that included more than 700 athletes in the women's division alone, CSU-Pueblo made sure it wasn't lost in the pure scale of the meet.  For the first time this season, the ThunderWolves boasted two provisional qualifiers.

Shannon Elliott (Fr., El Paso, Tex.), who was an automatic qualifier earlier this season in the triple jump, provisionally qualled in the triple jump with a leap of 11.64m, which spelled a 12th-place finish but was considerably shorter than her automatic qualifying mark of 12.33m mark set in December, still the longest jump by a Division-II triple jumper this season.

But the most encouraging performance was that put forward by Blair Gilkes (So., Aurora, Colo.).  Gilkes was the only ThunderWolf to finish in the top ten in an event, turning in two such finishes in the 60-meter and 200-meter, finishing ninth and sixth, respectively.  In the 200, Gilkes sprinted to a 25.09 time, enough to earn a provisional qualification for nationals in the event.  Gilkes' 25.09 was over a full second better than her previous best 200 dash of 26.17.

Following this encouraging performance, CSU-Pueblo will return to the Colorado front range and travel to the Air Force Academy for the Air Force Invitational Feb. 13.