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Mostafa Hassan of the Colorado State men’s track & field team repeated as national champion in the shot put to highlight the first day of competition for the Rams at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships from Gilliam Indoor Stadium.
Hassan’s winning mark was a season-best 68-5.25 (20.86m), which came on his first attempt of the night. The native of Cairo, Egypt won the competition by nearly two feet (66-7/20.29m by Georgia’s Daniel Comenentia), and had the three best marks by any athlete at the meet (68-5/20.85m and 68-4.25/20.84m). In addition to the individual title, Hassan’s performance earned him his fifth career First-Team All-America honor.
The senior becomes the first athlete in Mountain West history – men’s or women’s indoor track & field – to repeat as an NCAA champion in a single indoor throwing event. Hassan is the second Ram to win multiple NCAA titles (Bryan Berryhill – 2001 indoor champion in mile, 2001 outdoor champion in 1,500 meters) and the third to win multiple national titles under any collegiate organization (Wendy Koenig-Knudson – 1975 and 1976 AIAW outdoor champion in 880 yards/800 meters, 1976 AIAW outdoor champion in 1,500 meters).
Grant Fischer was the second Ram to earn All-America honors on Friday, picking up second-team distinction with a 14th-place finish in the 5,000 meters. The Fort Collins, Colo., native finished with a time of 14:21.82 en route to his second straight All-America performance in the indoor 5,000 and the third overall of his career. The senior becomes one of two athletes in program history to earn multiple All-America honors in the indoor 5,000 meters (Jerrell Mock – 2015, 2017).
Rounding out performances by CSU athletes on Friday was that of Cole Rockhold, who advanced to Saturday’s mile final with a second-place finish and time of 4:02.85 in the first heat of Friday’s preliminaries. The junior will be one of 10 remaining runners (16 original qualifiers) in the mile on Saturday, as the top four times in each heat received automatic berths in Saturday’s final along with the next two fastest times between the two heats.
