2015 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Championships — Fayetteville, Ark.
When: Friday-Saturday, March 13-14, 2015
Where: Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark
Live Results: FlashResults.com
As the phrase goes, the more the merrier. And with this group, it could very well be quite a merry trip.
The University of New Mexico track and field team is sending a program-record seven individuals and a relay team to the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships this Friday and Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.
Competing for the Lobos are Adam Bitchell (3000-meter run), Elmar Engholm (mile), Ridge Jones (60), Django Lovett (high jump), Allan Hamilton (long jump), Sammy Silva (mile), Calli Thackery (3000) and a women’s distance medley relay team.
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| Ridge Jones |
It’s the largest party New Mexico has ever qualified to indoor nationals, and the group is aiming for scoring performances when the Lobos compete at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.
With such a large contingent, the Lobos are in position to both continue and end some scoring streaks at the national championship.
The men have scored at each of the last six NCAA Championships — tied for the longest such run in program history — with a tie for eighth place in 2010 and a tie for 15th in 2012. The Lobos tied for 45th last year at the UNM- and Albuquerque-hosted NCAAs.
On the women’s side, however, New Mexico has scored only twice ever, in 2010 and 2012.
But the Lobos are undoubtedly in position to capturing team points. The top eight finishers in each event score, and the Lobos will certainly have their chances to produce.
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| Django Lovett |
The men head to Fayetteville with the most scoring opportunities (five) since 2010 and the most individual entrants ever, while the women have an unprecedented three opportunities to score.
Bitchell is one of five New Mexico men making the national championships, and is one of two making a repeat appearance.
The Aberystwyth, Wales, product is taking aim in the 3,000, and owns a personal-record time of 7:53.27 in the event that ranks 16th in the NCAA, right at the cutoff to qualify to the NCAAs.
And while he competed in the 5000 last year — and tallied a respectable ninth-place finish on his home track — he’ll be moving down in distance this year.
But he’s adept over both distances as evidenced by his sweep of the events at the Mountain West Indoor Championships last month. By dint of Bitchell’s 26 points (he was also third in the mile), the Lobos won their third straight indoor conference title.
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| Elmar Engholm |
Engholm has also qualified to his second straight NCAA Indoor Championship, but he will run in the same event, the mile, as he did last year.
Engholm, out of Stockholm, Sweden, comes into the championship with a personal-record time of 3:57.95 that ranks 12th in the NCAA. It’s his third sub-four-minute mile at UNM, tying him with former Lobo and two-time NCAA mile champion Lee Emanuel for the most in UNM history.
He placed 12th in the mile at last March’s NCAA meet with a time of 3:59.71.
Engholm is also just the seventh MW athlete to make the NCAA Championships in the mile, but only the third — along with Emanuel (2009-10) and BYU’s Nate Robison (2003-04) — to make it in back-to-back years.
Three other Lobo men are making their NCAA debuts, and all three are MW champions in their events.
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| Allan Hamilton |
Jones, a dual-sport athlete who plays wide receiver for the football team, is 17th in the NCAA in the 60 with a MW- and UNM-record of 6.62. While he qualified to the NCAAs based off which athletes declared, the DeSoto, Texas, native is a veritable threat in the 60.
Despite earlier reports to the contrary, Jones is the first athlete in New Mexico history to make the indoor national championships in any short sprint event (60/200), and he’s also just the fifth in Mountain West history to do so.
He is also the first Lobo to win a conference title in the 60-meter dash, and owns eight of the 10 fastest 60-meter times in UNM history.
Hamilton isn’t quite alone in the history books as Jones, but the Edinburgh, Scotland, jumper has made quite a name for himself. He enters the meet with the 15th-best long jump measured at 25-2 3/4 (7.69m), and won the event handily at the conference meet.
But he also has a claim to history as New Mexico’s representative in the long jump. At each of the last three NCAA Indoor Championships, UNM has had a long jumper qualified, with Kendall Spencer making it the last three years. Hamilton is the one taking up that mantle, and has the credentials as he’s ranked fifth in Lobo history.
Lovett is the final male athlete to qualify, but this qualification has special significance for the high jumper out of Surrey, British Columbia.
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| Calli Thackery |
He’s made three NCAA Outdoor Championships from 2011 to 2013, but has never made one indoors until now. He’s also the first in UNM history to make the national championships indoors, and is just the second in MW history.
Lovett heads to the meet with a MW- and UNM-record clearance of 7-3, which ranks 11th in the NCAA.
On the women’s side, Sammy Silva leads the charge, as she’s seeded seventh in the mile with a MW- and UNM-record time of 4:33.48.
The La Mesa, Calif., product by way of Harvard is the second Lobo to ever make the NCAAs in the mile, and owns the highest seed mark of any individual New Mexico qualified.
Thackery will also run on the track as she races in the 3000. Like Silva, the Yorkshire, England, native is the second Lobo to make the NCAAs in her event, and heads into the meet ranked 14th with a time of 9:07.31.
She ranks second in school history in the event and owns two of the five best time in program history.
New Mexico has also qualified a distance medley relay team, and will roll out Tamara Armoush, Holly Van Grinsven, Sophie Connor and Alice Wright at the NCAAs. The foursome will be the first relay team to ever make the national finals for UNM.
In fact, UNM is just the second school in conference history to qualify a DMR to the NCAAs, and it’s the first since 2010. Only BYU (2000, 2002-04, 2009-10) and Colorado State (2002) have advanced a DMR before.
The team enters with a fourth-ranked seed time of 11:01.44, which Thackery, Van Grinsven, Connor and Silva ran in February.
The meet starts Friday at 9 a.m. MT with the beginning of the heptathlon and continues Saturday at 9:45 a.m. MT with the conclusion of the heptathlon.
The Lobos will compete on Friday at 5 p.m. MT with the long jump and the semifinals of the men’s and women’s miles, at 6:35 p.m. MT with the 60 and 8:05 p.m. MT with the DMR.
On Saturday, UNM is slated to compete at 2:30 p.m. MT in the high jump, 5 p.m. MT with the finals of the mile, 6:10 p.m. MT with the finals of the 60 and 7 p.m. with the 3000s.
Live results will be available on FlashResults.com and the meet will be streamed live on ESPN3 on March 13-14 at 5 p.m. MT. A tape delay of the championship will air Monday, March 23, starting at 5:30 p.m. MT on ESPNU.