COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — University of New Mexico senior Sammy Silva has been named Mountain West Women’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Week for meets contested from Jan. 23-24. This is the first selection of her career.
Silva, a Harvard transfer originally from La Mesa, Calif., raced to an altitude-converted time of 4 minutes, 41.97 seconds in the mile run at the Lobo Collegiate Open at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Jan. 24.
Her time, which set a new personal record, was good for fourth overall and first collegiately in a race that featured three professional runners in former All-Americans Katie Mackey, Brie Felnagle and Amanda Mergaert.
Silva also leads the Mountain West by over 10 seconds and ranks 10th in the nation. She is currently third all-time in the mile at UNM, behind All-Americans Josephine Moultrie (4:36.59) and Charlotte Arter (4:38.20).
Silva’s honor is the first overall weekly conference honor for the UNM women since Aasha Marler was named MW Field Athlete of the Week on Jan. 13. Along with Ridge Jones’ Men’s Track Athlete of the Week honor from Jan. 13, the Lobos have earned three athlete-of-the-week honors in 2015. It’s the first time New Mexico earned three honors in one month since February 2010.
New Mexico is back in action when it hosts the 10-team New Mexico Team Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Saturday, Jan. 31.