La Vern Clark-Roberts
La Vern Clark-Roberts Courtesy: New Mexico Athletics
Release: 11/25/2014
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La Vern Clark Roberts
La Vern Clark-Roberts’ name is spread throughout the record books of New Mexico track & field. Between her titles and accolades that rival almost every female track & field athlete in program history, she’s earned that much.
Clark-Roberts, from Winnipeg, Canada, is one of the most decorated female track & field athletes to come through New Mexico, competing in the long jump and triple jump while winning conference championships and All-American plaudits during her three years as a Lobo. She is the only New Mexico field athlete to earn two All-American honors in one championship, and won five conference titles during her collegiate career. Add in her considerable accomplishments at the international level, and it is clear the type of legacy Clark-Roberts left at UNM.
Clark-Roberts’ collegiate experience began in 1988 at Oklahoma State University, where she competed under then-Cowgirls coach Richard Shanahan. While a freshman in Stillwater, Clark-Roberts claimed the Big Eight title in the outdoor triple jump and captured her first All-American nod as she placed fifth in the triple jump at the 1988 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Even more than a quarter century after she left Oklahoma State, she still ranks 10th all-time in the triple jump.
When Shanahan took a position as assistant track coach at New Mexico, Clark-Roberts followed him to Albuquerque. In the ensuing three years, she became a national-caliber force in the horizontal jumps. During her junior year in 1990, she recorded her collegiate bests in the long jump and triple jump, leaping 20 feet, 11 ¾ inches and 43-1 ½, respectively. She also won the long jump and triple jump at the High County Athletic Conference outdoor championships in 1990, parlaying those performances into her first two All-American nods as a Lobo, where she placed eighth in both events at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
A year later, Clark-Roberts continued her reign in the jumps. At the Western Athletic Conference championships, she seized the individual crown in the indoor triple jump and defended her sweep of the horizontal jumps at the WAC Outdoor Championships. She capped off her superb senior year with another NCAA Championship appearance, where she placed ninth-and barely missed another All-American selection-in the triple jump.
When she graduated from UNM in 1991, Clark-Roberts held the school records in the indoor triple jump and both the outdoor long jump and triple jump. Those records, since surpassed, stood for almost two decades. She is also one of only two UNM athletes to qualify to the NCAA Championships in the triple jump and is one of just three Lobos to make the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the long jump.
Clark-Roberts’ success also extended to her home country of Canada, where she is the former Canadian record holder in both horizontal jumps. She won the triple jump four years running from 1988 to 1991, and owns the distinction of being Canada’s first ever national champion in the triple jump after the Canadian Track & Field Association officially recognized the event as a championship event in 1988. Additionally, she holds the senior records in both the long jump and triple jump in Manitoba, the province in which she was born, and was ranked as high as 12th in world rankings for both events in 1991.
Clark-Roberts excelled in the international competition, as well, representing Canada at the World Student Games. She was also a member of Canada’s Junior National Team and was twice a part of Canada’s Senior National Team.
Post-collegiately, Clark-Roberts earned a doctorate in chiropractics, and is licensed in New Mexico, the United States and Canada.