New Mexico Classic — Albuquerque, N.M.
When: Friday-Saturday, Feb. 6-7, 2015
Where: Albuquerque Convention Center
Live Results: LiveRunningResults.com
The conference championships aren’t until the end of the month, but the Lobos are already making plans to repeat as champions.
The University of New Mexico’s track and field team is aiming to capture progress on the path to defending its 2014 Mountain West indoor titles as it hosts the New Mexico Collegiate Classic Friday and Saturday.
The Lobos, who are in between superlatively competitive meets, welcome another strong field to the Albuquerque Convention Center for the third of four straight home meets with the goal of building towards their postseason goals.
“The biggest goal [for this meet] is making sure you’re making progress toward putting yourself in position to win a conference championships,” UNM head coach Joe Franklin said.
New Mexico, fresh off a sensational team performance at the team-scored New Mexico Team Invitational last weekend, is resting a number of athletes in preparation for its next two meets.
The Lobos host the Don Kirby Elite Invitational, a perennial barnburner featuring a who’s who of track and field, on Feb. 13-14, before hosting the conference championships Feb. 26-28.
 |
|
| Charles Lewis |
“We’ve had two great weekends in a row and at some point, you get to the law of diminishing returns,” Franklin said. “So you’ve got have an easier week, because at some point, you’re not going to run as a fast, jump as far. We’ve got to build and rest.”
So Franklin and his staff looks at this weekend as a chance for the Lobos to recover and get primed for a strong closing run.
UNM’s distance runners and some of the jumpers will take a week off to recover, giving the rest of the Lobos ample opportunity to gain both experience and progress toward a potential postseason position in Albuquerque.
“We want to see progress, most importantly in training,” Franklin said. “We’re going to be doing some stuff with kids just to see how they react to certain event patterns for the conference championships.”
Django Lovett is one Lobo looking to make some moves as he takes aim in the high jump. He’ll be joined by Markus Miller in the high jump, while Yannick Roggatz competes in the long jump. New Mexico’s sprinters are also getting opportunities, including Charles Lewis, Mustafa Mudada, Mark Haywood and Scott Bajere.
For the women, UNM school record holder Holly Van Grinsven is competing in the 60-meter hurdles, and Annie Stirling and Katherine Whiting are both competing in the pole vault.
A large contingent of the women’s sprinters are also taking the track, with Haley Sanner, Peri Moran, Erynn Caldwell, Faith Cobb, Lucretia Vigil, Kelsi Lewis, Christina Clark and Ariel Burch. Brittany Myricks is also making her season debut for the women.
Aasha Marler and Jannell Hadnot are also slated to compete in the long jump and triple jump, respectively.
The Lobos will also get a chance, as they have all season, of facing superb teams at home. Arizona, Arkansas, BYU, LSU, Stephen F. Austin, Texas, Texas Tech, Utah and Washington are all sending athletes to Albuquerque this weekend.
For New Mexico, it provides just another opportunity to see how they stack up as one of the best against some of the rest of the best.
“We’re a great a school,” Franklin said. “I think it continues to show that this is the level you compete at.”
Currently, the Lobo women check in with a No. 3 ranking in the Women’s Mountain Region Index that was released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Tuesday. The Lobo men are ranked sixth in the men’s version of the same rankings.
Nationally, the UNM men are ranked 49th, second among all of the other men’s programs in the Mountain West.
The meet starts Friday at 4 p.m. MT, and is followed up Saturday at 10 a.m. Check liverunningresults.com throughout the meet for live results and GoLobos.com after the meet Saturday for a full recap.