COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The University of New Mexico’s track and field team claimed a pair of conference honors Tuesday as Aasha Marler and Ridge Jones earned recognition from the Mountain West for their performances for meets held January 9-12.
Marler was selected as the Mountain West Women’s Field Athlete of the Week, while Ridge earned MW Men’s Track Athlete of the Week. Both are receiving their first-ever weekly conference honor.
Marler, a senior from Albuquerque, registered the ninth-best long jump mark in the nation in 2015 with a 19-foot, 8 1/4-inch leap at the Air Force Collegiate Open on Friday, Jan. 9. It is the second-longest jump of her career indoors, behind her 20-5 mark to win the 2014 MW long jump title.
Her mark is also just 19 centimeters behind the conference leader, Je’Nia Sears of Fresno State (20-3 ¾), and ranks right outside the top-10 longest distances ever recorded in New Mexico history.
Jones, a junior out of DeSoto, Texas, clocked a time of 6.83 seconds (converted from 6.79 for altitude) in the 60-meter dash at the Air Force Open. He won the event and leads the MW by .11 seconds.
His time ranks 37th in the NCAA and is .04 seconds from breaking into the top-10 fastest times in school history.
The duo earned the first indoor athlete of the week honors for New Mexico in 2014, and the first since Feb. 18, 2014, when Luke Caldwell earned men’s athlete of the week.
Although the Mountain West just expanded the number of conference athletes of the week from two to four (track athletes and field athletes for both genders), New Mexico hasn’t received two conference athletes of the week since Feb. 16, 2010, when Lee Emanuel and Ashley Gibson swept the awards.
New Mexico will open its indoor season next Saturday, Jan. 24, with the Lobo Collegiate Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center.