Avery Pearson moved to the No. 2 spot in Colorado history as four University of Colorado women’s track and field athletes earned top-10 school marks during the John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston University on Jan. 30.
The event highlighted strong performances from the women’s team, with Coach Sean Carlson saying, “Both our 800 girls won their 800 heat by quite a bit, Abbey was the top collegian in the 5k and Mia PR’d really, really big, so that was pretty cool.”
Pearson ran a time of 2:04.15 in the Invite 800 meters, making her second all-time for Colorado and placing her ninth nationally this season. Riley Burkey also entered the school’s top-10 list after winning her Open 800 heat with a personal best of 2:10.40, improving by more than four seconds over her previous indoor record.
In distance events, Mia Larochelle set a new personal record in the Open 3000 meters with a time of 9:03.66, moving to sixth on Colorado’s all-time list and likely ranking among the NCAA’s top-25 this season. In the Invite 5000 meters, Abbey Nechanicky finished as the fastest collegiate runner with a time of 15:42.12—over fifteen seconds faster than her previous best—moving up two spots to eighth in school history.
Juliette Forstrom and Ella Hagen also competed in the Open 5000 meters; Forstrom set a new personal best at 16:12.87 while Hagen recorded a time of 16:20.29 in her first collegiate race at that distance.
Carlson said, “Overall, the main point on the women’s side is they have really, really good momentum right now. This should continue to build confidence for them and the whole team going into the later parts of the season.” The men’s team is scheduled to compete next at Boston University.
