When: Friday-Saturday, Feb. 13-14, 2015
Where: Albuquerque Convention Center
Live Results: LiveRunningResults.com, RecordTiming.com
Between the teams, the athletes and the facility, this meet is like a who’s who of college athletics.
But it’s almost just another weekend for this tried-and-tested Lobo team.
The University of New Mexico’s track and field team is taking on a premier field at the Don Kirby Elite Invitational Friday and Saturday, as it aims to register strong marks to get into position for a strong postseason run.
With conference and national championships quickly approaching, the Lobos will again take on the superb competition in the fourth of four straight regular-season home meets at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
“Everybody’s doing everything this weekend,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said. “We’re not holding anybody out who’s not healthy. Everyone will compete.”
With everyone toeing the line for the Lobos, Franklin and his staff are hoping that this meet can produce some season-best marks and times before UNM hosts the Mountain West Championships Feb. 26-28.
But the goal also extends further, as some athletes are eyeing this meet as a springboard to the NCAA Championships.
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| Elmar Engholm |
The top 16 athletes (and top 12 relay teams) in the nation qualify to the national championships, and facing elite talent now can potentially translate into NCAA bids for some aspiring Lobos.
“This is a meet where you don’t have to worry about times, distances, anything like that,” Franklin said. “If you just compete to win your event and do the best you possibly can, the byproduct is that you’re going to have a great time, you’re going to have a great mark and you’re going to have a great finish.”
The Don Kirby has become one of the elite meets of the regular season, drawing some of the best teams in the nation for a high-powered competition right before the conference-championship season.
And this year will be no different, as three men’s teams and five women’s squads are ranked in the top 25 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Top-ranked and defending national indoor champs Oregon headlines the men’s competition, which also includes No. 9 Stanford and No. 24 BYU. The women’s field features fifth-ranked (and also defending national indoor champs) Oregon, No. 9 Stanford, No. 17 USC, No. 19 UCLA and No. 20 Michigan.
And if the ranked teams weren’t enough, the rest of the field also includes Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado State, NC State, California, UCLA, Oklahoma, USC, Virginia, UTEP, Wyoming, Utah State and Washington State, among others.
“The teams that are coming, it’s incredibly high-level competition,” Franklin said. “I would think that in every event, there will be two or three marks that will be in the top-five in the country across the board in every event.”
Franklin is probably right, all things considered. UNM and the facility have become renowned for producing top results.
And the Lobos are up for the task, having spent all season taking on meet after meet of similarly strong competition.
On the men’s side, all the familiar faces are back at it, including the Lobos’ burgeoning sprints squad.
Ridge Jones, Allan Hamilton, Scott Bajere and Carlos Wiggins are all primed to go in the short sprints, with Mustafa Mudada and Mark Haywood joining in the 200-meter dash. Charles Lewis and Cheyne Dorsey are slated to run the 400.
UNM’s jumpers, led by Hamilton in the long jump, will also be out in full-force against some strong competitors.
Yannick Roggatz and Warrick Campbell will be competing in their respective specialities, the long jump and triple jump, while Django Lovett and Markus Miller take on the high jump.
The men’s mile will also run out some of their best middle-distance talent, with Ross Matheson and Matt Bergin in the 800 and Graham Thomas, Elmar Engholm and Matheson in the mile.
For the women, Sammy Silva and Sophie Connor will look for fast times in the mile, where they’ll be joined by Tamara Armoush and Nicola Hood.
Hood will also run the 800, while Anna Burton makes her UNM track debut in the 3000.
Also on the track, Zoe Howell will run the 600, while Haley Sanner, Kelsi Lewis and Ariel Burch, among others, will run the quartermile. In the short sprints, the Lobos will see Aasha Marler, Peri Moran, Erynn Caldwell and Brittany Myricks.
Holly Van Grinsven leads four Lobos in the 60 hurdles, along with Samantha Bowe, Casey Dowling and Kyra Mohns.
Out in the field, Marler headlines a strong contingent in the jumps, along with Dowling in the long jump and Jannell Hadnot in the triple jump. Bowe will also compete in the high jump, while Annie Stirling and Katherine Whiting take aim in the pole vault.
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.