FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — One day in, one All-American.
University of New Mexico track and field’s Allan Hamilton leaped to sixth in the men’s long jump to open the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships Friday.
The Edinburgh, Scotland, product jumped 25 feet, 4 ¾ inches at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, earning three team point for the Lobos, who stand in 20th place through the first day of the two-day championship.
He will earn First-Team All-America honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for his performance.
Hamilton, who entered the meet with a seed mark of 25-2 ¾ that ranked 16th out of the 16 entrants, managed to nearly equal that mark in the preliminary round of jumps, leaping 25-1 ¼ on his second attempt.
After making the nine-athlete finals, he didn’t improve on his first two attempts in the finals. However, he uncorked his best leap on his last attempt to secure his sixth-place finish.
It’s the best finish in the event for the New Mexico — which has qualified an athlete to the NCAAs in the long jump each of the last four years — since Kendall Spencer won the event in 2012.
Hamilton also moves to fourth in school history and third in Mountain West history.
 |
|
| Sammy Silva |
The only other event to go final Friday was the women’s distance medley relay team, which placed 10th in 11 minutes, 17.98 seconds.
The foursome of Tamara Armoush, Holly Van Grinsven, Sophie Connor and Alice Wright combined for the second-fastest DMR time in school history, behind the mark that Silva, Van Grinsven, Connor and Calli Thackery ran last month to qualify UNM to the NCAAs.
The three other New Mexico athletes competing Friday all did so in preliminary-round action.
Sammy Silva was the lone Lobo to advance through the prelims, zipping to a time of 4:36.79 in the women’s mile. She was sixth overall in the preliminary round, and grabbed the requisite place in the event to advance to tomorrow’s finals.
Elmar Engholm (12th, 4:00.79) competed in the men’s mile prelims, while Ridge Jones (14th, 6.77) competed in the men’s 60 prelims.
New Mexico will conclude action tomorrow with Django Lovett (men’s high jump) at 2:30 p.m. MT, Silva (mile finals) at 5 p.m. MT, Thackery (women’s 3000 finals) at 7 p.m. MT and Adam Bitchell (men’s 3000 finals) at 7:15 p.m. MT.
Live results will be available on FlashResults.com and the meet will be streamed live on ESPN3 at 5 p.m. MT.