Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships
May 9-11, 2024 • Veterans Memorial Stadium • Clovis, Calif.
Championship Central | Watch | Live Results | Meet Schedule
FRESNO, Calif. – The Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships return to Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis, California this week. On the heels of earning its highest finish at the indoor championships, the Fresno State women have been one of the top-ranked teams in the conference this spring.
MOUNTAIN WEST OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS RETURN TO CENTRAL VALLEY
For the sixth straight season, and seventh time in the last eight years, Fresno State will host the Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
CHAMPIONSHIP OUTLOOK
Fresno State goes into the week with 17 athletes sitting in scoring position (Top 8) in at least one event at the Mountain West Championships, excluding relays. Those 14 athletes are in line for 26 scoring opportunities.
Of the 17 athletes, 14 are on the women's side, three on the men's.
Eight Bulldogs are in the Top 8 in at least two events -- Jordyn Bryant, Amelia DiPaola, Madison Hutton, Cierra Jackson, Rachela Pace, Kaitlynn Perez, Ceonna Pipion and Enoch Okoh.
Cierra Jackson is in the Top 8 in three different events. The junior scored in all three in 2023 (discus - 3rd, shot put - 4th, hammer 8th).
The women are in the Top 3 in seven different events, the second-most in the conference, one behind Colorado State.
Eight different athletes in the conference rank in the Top 3 in two events. Jackson and Pipion are two of those eight. San Diego State also has two.
THE PROCESS
When Jason Drake took over as Fresno State's Director of Track & Field in the summer of 2019, the goal was a Mountain West championship. With a depleted roster on the women's side, the Bulldogs finished 11th at the 2020 indoor championships, scoring just eight points. The 2020 outdoor championships were then canceled due to the Covid pandemic. There also wasn't an indoor championship held in 2021. But the process was already in the works to where Drake and his staff have found them today.
From 2021-23, the team's outdoor point total has gone from 56 to 73 to 86.2, going from fifth twice to fourth in 2023, the program's highest finish since 2016. It was just the third time since joining the MW that the team had finished fourth or higher.
Indoors, the point total has gone from 8 in 2020 to 36, to 49.5 to 87 this season. Finishes have gone from 11th to eight to sixth to third. Fresno State had never finished higher than sixth at a MW indoor championship.
With the jump in points at indoors, and Fresno State being stronger outdoors, the Bulldogs are expected to be contention come Saturday evening.
IN THE MIX
Heading into the Mountain West Outdoor Championships, the USTFCCCA conference rankings has Fresno State sitting second in the Mountain West with 852.09 points. Colorado State leads with 952.57 while San Diego State is third with 761.20.
OPENING UP IN THE TOP 25
In the first USTFCCCA national rankings, the Fresno State women were ranked No. 24. It is one spot higher than the Bulldogs were to open the 2023 outdoor season.
Week 7 has the Bulldogs at No. 43.
A SENIOR DAY TO REMEMBER
On April 27 at the Fresno State Invitational, Ceonna Pipion posted two wins and two runner-up finishes. Two of those results came on relays. Individually, the senior broke the program record in the 400 meters with a time of 52.79, one one-hundredth of a second better than Tanya Dooley's record which had stood since 1994. The Folsom, Calif. product also took second in the 200 meters with a time of 23.48, missing that school record by just three one-hundredths of a second.
Pipion also holds both the 200 and 400 indoor records at Fresno State.
ONE STEP, TWO STEP, THREE
Coming off breaking the school record in the triple jump during the indoor season, and earning Second Team All-America, Rachela Pace has competed in the triple jump twice during the outdoor season. Both competitions have resulted in a new school record.
At the Stanford Invitational, Pace jumped 13.12m/43-0.5 to claim the program's record. Two weeks later at Mt. SAC Relays, she improved on that mark to 13.26m/43-6.
In her first outdoor event after competing at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships, Pace showed no let up from the indoor season, winning the long jump at the West Coast Relays with the No. 2 mark in program history (6.30m/20-8). The junior entered the year with a PR of 5.97m/19-7.
SHOT PUT HOLDER
At the Triton Invitational, Cierra Jackson broke the program's 38-year-old shot put record with a mark of 17.39m/57-0.75. Dot Jones held the previous record of 16.53m/54-2.75 since 1986.
By claiming the outdoor shot put record, Jackson holds both the indoor and outdoor records in the event.
DUELING THROWERS
After seven weekends of meets, Fresno State's Jordyn Bryant and Cierra Jackson are showing why they are two of the top throwers in the country. Bryant sits No. 51 in the shot put and No. 7 in the discus in the NCAA, while Jackson is No. 15 in the shot put and No. 10 in the discus. In the Mountain West, the two rank 3-4 in the shot put and 2-3 in the discus.
Jackson ranks No. 1 all-time in the shot put and No. 2 in the discus at Fresno State while Bryant is No. 3 in the discus and No. 4 in the shot put.
SET FOR TRIALS
With Jordyn Bryant and Cierra Jackson both eclipsing 59 meters in the discus this season, both will head to the U.S. Olympic Trials this summer after earning the Olympic "A" standard. The standard for the women's discus is 58.50 meters.
FRESHMAN LEAPER
After taking third at the Mountain West Indoor Championships in the high jump at a height of 1.74m/5-8.5, Liz Tarczy hadn't cleared 1.70m during her first three meets of the outdoor season. That changed in mid-April as she won the A section at the Mt. SAC Relays with a PR of 1.77m/5-9.75. The freshman wasn't done there, winning her second straight competition two weeks later while clearing 1.80/5-10.75.
It took Tarczy just five meets to jump to No. 3 on the Bulldogs' all-time list.
THEY CAN DO IT ALL
Fresno State has women ranked No. 2, 4, 7, and 10 in the Mountain West in the heptathlon this season. Only one other team has more than one in the Top 10, and they only have two.
The Bulldogs group includes Madison Hutton and Kaitlynn Perez who took first and fourth in the pentathlon at the indoor championships. That group of four does not including pentathlon bronze medalist Kaja Bins.
The 'Dogs went 3-5-10 last at the 2023 outdoor championships.
Hutton, Bins and Perez rank No. 3, 7, and 10 all-time at Fresno State in the heptathlon.
GOING IN 1-2
Only two events at this week's championships see the Top 2 competing for the same team. One of those is the javelin where Bulldogs Harriette Mortlock and Rhiannon Genilla have posted the top marks. Mortlock enters at 49.88m/163-8 while Genilla is at 49.68m/163-0.
THE TOP 10
Fresno State's current group of Bulldogs entered 2024 holding 15 spots on the program's all-time Top 10 lists.
Ten of those 15 came from five athletes who held two each. Ceonna Pipion in the 200m and 400m. Madison Hutton in the long jump and heptathlon. Cierra Jackson in the shot put and discus. Jordyn Bryant in the shot put and discus. Jocelynn Budwig in the shot put and hammer. Amelia DiPaola added herself to that list this season
The Bulldogs have added nine more to the Top 10's this season.
DOUBLE DIP
For the first time in its history, Fresno State earned two Mountain West weekly honors in the same week on April 23. Jordyn Bryant was named Women's Field Athlete of the Week while Liz Tarczy was selected Women's Freshman of the Week.
They were the second and third Bulldogs to earn the conference's weekly honor, joining Rachela Pace (Women's Field Athlete of the Week).
Ceonna Pipion earned the Bulldogs' fourth of the month of April when she was named Women's Track Athlete of the Week on April 30.