ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — At a team-scored meet against top-notch teams, no one was safe from the Lobos. Not even the record books.
The University of New Mexico track and field team set a trio of new school records at the New Mexico Team Invitational Saturday at the Albuquerque Convention Center, earning new program standards versus a strong field of competition.
Both Sammy Silva and Sophie Connor broke the school record in the 800-meter run, while Holly Van Grinsven set the program record in the 60 hurdles and Ridge Jones tied the record in the 60 dash.
“It’s awesome,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said. “… It was just an awesome meet for kids to come out and break school records and set PRs.”
The Lobos also performed well in the high-caliber, team-scored meet, as the women took second in the 10-team field and the men placed fourth.
But the results were the story for the Lobos on Saturday.
Silva and Connor, running alongside teammate Tamara Armoush, both snapped Josephine Moultrie’s three-year-old record in the 800. Silva just edged Connor at the line, and won the event in 2 minutes, 8.86 seconds, versus Connor’s time of 2:08.92. Armoush finished third in 2:13.79.
For Connor, it’s second straight week she’s overtaken Moultrie in the record books after she clipped Moultrie’s record in the 600 at the Lobo Open.
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| Ridge Jones |
Van Grinsven earned her own record, too, a week after setting a new personal record in the 60 hurdles. She was second in school history entering today, but parlayed her third-place showing of 8.35 seconds into a new UNM benchmark.
“It’s a great feeling,” Van Grinsven said, “because a lot of really amazing athletes have come through this program and to know that there’s a those standards that have been set and that you have to try to go after that is a really exciting feeling.”
Jones was the final Lobo to stamp his name atop the record book, as he rolled to a time of 6.67 in the 60 dash. His time is tied with Beejay Lee, who set his record in 2012.
However, a number of Lobos were right off record times, including Adam Bitchell, Calli Thackery and Zoe Howell.
Bitchell clocked a time of 8:11.64 in the 3000 which ranks him fourth all-time at UNM. Thackery followed the lead, moving to third in New Mexico history in the 3000 with a winning time of 9:33.80.
Both Bitchell and Thackery led a number of scorers in their respective 3000s. The men went 1-2-3-4 with Patrick Zacharias in second place (time of 8:26.09), Graham Thomas third (8:28.23) and Zac Castillo fourth (8:33.31).
For the women, Nicole Roberts (seventh, 10:00.45) and Heleene Tambet (eighth, 10:02.39) also scored in the 3000.
Howell also made strides toward a school record, running a second-place time of 1:33.23 in the 600. She’s only behind Connor and Moultrie in the 600 in school history.
However the Lobos got scoring contributions from across the board in their only scored meet of the regular season.
On the women’s side, Armoush won the women’s mile in 4:52.62 ahead of Roberts, who finished third in 4:56.73. They rank sixth and third, respectively, in school history.
The 4×400 meter relay team also helped out, as the team of Haley Sanner, Howell, Faith Cobb, Van Grinsven placed fourth in 3:50.29; the team of Lucretia Vigil, Kelsi Lewis, Ariel Burch and Christina Clark placed seventh in 3:57.08; and the team of Connor, Silva, Armoush and Kyra Mohns was eighth in 3:59.85.
In the field, Aasha Marler continued her torrid streak with a third-place finish in the long jump (19 feet, 5 ½ inches) and a fourth-place finish in the triple jump (41-5).
Jannell Hadnot also contributed in the triple jump (eighth, 40-2), as did Annie Stirling in the pole vault (fourth, 12-8 ¾) and Casey Dowling (sixth, 18-9 ¼) and Samantha Bowe (eighth, 18-3 ¼) in the long jump.
For the men, Charles Lewis (eighth, 48.21) and Cheyne Dorsey (sixth, 1:23.70) scored in the 400 and 600, respectively, and helped the 4×400, along with Mustafa Mudada and Mark Haywood, to fifth place.
Yannick Roggatz was fourth in the 60 hurdles with a time of 8.33 seconds, while Elmar Engholm chipped in with an eighth-place time of 4:12.38 in the mile.
Allan Hamilton and Warrick Campbell rounded out the Lobos’ scorers, as Hamilton was fifth in the long jump (23-11 ½) and Campbell was second in the triple jump (50-6 ¾).
The UCLA men won the meet with a team total of 74 points. Arizona State was second (72 points), followed by California (third place, 62), UNM (fourth, 60), Kansas State (fifth, 59), Alabama (sixth, 58), TCU (seventh, 55), Utah State (seventh, 55), Air Force (ninth, 53) and UTEP (10th, 37).
UCLA also took the women’s title with 93 points, just ahead of UNM’s 91.5 points. Alabama was third (80.5 points), Kansas State fourth (79.5), Arizona State fifth (65.5), UTEP sixth (64), California seventh (41.5), Utah State eighth (29), TCU ninth (20) and Air Force 10th (11.5).
The Lobos are back in action next weekend for the third of four straight home meets when they host the New Mexico Classic next Friday and Saturday.