ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The New Mexico coaches were just a little concerned about rust at the first home meet of the season.
But with these Lobos, there was nothing to be worried about.
The University of New Mexico track and field team registered strong marks against a large field of competition to open a four-meet homestand at the Lobo Collegiate Invitational Friday.
The Lobos, competing at home at the Albuquerque Convention Center for the first time in 2015, were paced by a handful of times and marks that rank in the New Mexico record books, including a new school record by Sophie Connor.
“I thought it was a great first meet,” Lobo head coach Joe Franklin. “The coaching staff was a little concerned. We little open up a little earlier, and thought maybe there’d be rust, but there wasn’t. We had a lot of great performances.”
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| Sophie Connor |
Connor headlined a superb day for the entire New Mexico team, as the Lobos posted 23 top-10 results and had a number of athletes break into the school record books.
“We had a lot of people get in on the top-10 list in New Mexico history,” Franklin said. “It was an unbelieve meet.”
For the women, Connor clipped the three-year old school benchmark in the 600-meter run, clocking a time of 1 minute, 33.06 seconds. She placed sixth in the event, right ahead of Zoe Howell (10th place, time of 1:34.49).
“That’s a good solid school record,” Franklin said about the standard Connor broke. “That’s a woman who is a very solid distance runner and running 600 meters.”
The Lobos’ distance crew also shined in the mile run, with Sammy Silva placing fourth overall and first collegiately in 4:48.25. Calli Thackery was right behind, taking fifth overall in 5:00.62.
Holly Van Grinsven also contributed, becoming the second-fastest Lobo ever in the 60 hurdles with her time of 8.45 seconds and anchoring the Lobos’ third-place 4×400 meter relay team of Haley Sanner, Howell and Faith Cobb.
UNM also received solid times from Aasha Marler and Erynn Caldwell in the 60 dash, with Marler placing ninth (7.61) and Caldwell entering the UNM record books as the 10th-fastest Lobo in school history (7.69).
In the field events, Jannell Hadnot and Marler swept the top-two positions in the triple jump, respectively. Hadnot won with a leap of 41 feet, 10 inches and Marler was second with distance of 41-7 ¾.
Hadnot also tallied a strong mark in the long jump, leaping 18-5 ¾ to place sixth. Annie Stirling rounded out the Lobos top-10 marks in the field events with her sixth-place clearance of 12-8 ½ in the pole vault.
On the men’s side, Allan Hamilton recorded two results that rank in the history books, with his win in the long jump and his eighth-place time in the 60.
“He’s a very good jumper,” Franklin said of Hamilton. “He’s part of the tradition of jumps that we have.”
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| Elmar Engholm |
Hamilton’s mark of 25-2 ¾ in the long jump was third in the nation prior to this weekend and ranks fifth in school history, while his time of 6.92 in the 60 is ninth all-time.
Ridge Jones was the only Lobo to beat Hamilton in the 60 taking third in 6.78.
Elsewhere in the sprints, Charles Lewis took ninth in the 400 (48.58) and sixth in the 600 (1:20.82), and combined with Cheyne Dorsey, Mustafa Mudada and Mark Haywood to place third in the 4×400 relay.
Lewis’ running-mates also had strong days, with Mudada winning the 400 hurdles (53.35), Haywood in the 400 (11th, 49.09) and Dorsey in the 600 (15th, 1:23.15).
Elmar Engholm led a small group of Lobo harriers in the longer races, as he placed third in the 800 with a time of 1:51.92 that places him 10th all-time in the event. In the mile, Graham Thomas (second, 4:14.37) and Zac Castillo (third, 4:15.91) also shined.
Out in the field, Warrick Campbell took third in the triple jump (49-7), while Daniel Lam (ninth, 22-6 ¼) posted the second best UNM mark in the long jump behind Hamilton.
Django Lovett and Markus Miller rounded out the Lobos’ strong marks, with Lovett placing third (6-11) and Miller placing 11th (6-3 ¼) in the high jump.
The Lobos will look to continue heading on that right direction when they host Air Force, Alabama, Arizona State, California, Kansas State, TCU, UCLA, Utah State and UTEP at the New Mexico Team Invitational next Saturday.