COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The University of New Mexico’s track and field team claimed a pair of conference honors Tuesday as Calli Thackery and Allan Hamilton earned recognition from the Mountain West for their performances for meets held April 16-18.
Thackery was selected as the Mountain West Women’s Track Athlete of the Week, while Hamilton earned MW Men’s Field Athlete of the Week. It’s the second total weekly MW award for Thackery and the second straight such accolade for Hamilton.
Thackery, a junior from Yorkshire, England, raced to a time of 15 minutes, 42.57 seconds in the 5,000-meter run at the 57th annual Mt. SAC Relays last Friday in Walnut, Calif.
Running against a field of professionals and other collegians, Thackery finished eighth overall and second collegiately.
Her time, which set a new personal record by over 36 seconds, ranks second in New Mexico history and third all-time in Mountain West history. She is second in the Mountain West and ranks eighth in the nation.
Hamilton, a junior out of Edinburgh, Scotland, claimed his second straight MW weekly honor after leaping 25 feet, 6 ¼ inches in the long jump at the Bryan Clay Invitational Friday in Azusa, Calif. That mark was the best among the collegiate athletes competing and placed second overall.
After registering a mark of 24-9 ¼ two weekends ago at the New Mexico Quadrangular, Hamilton has moved into the record books with his mark of 25-6 ¼. He now ranks seventh in New Mexico history and third in MW history.
Additionally, he ranks first in the Mountain West by over a foot, and is fifth in the NCAA and third in the NCAA West Region.
The duo combined for the fourth and fifth MW athlete-of-the-week honors that New Mexico has received outdoors in 2015. Last week, Hamilton (men’s field athlete) and Peter Callahan (men’s track athlete) earned honors, and Logan Pflibsen was named men’s field athlete on April 7.
Although the Mountain West expanded the number of men’s conference athletes of the week this year from one to two (both a track athlete and a field athlete), the Lobo men have broken the program record for earning such honors. In 2007 and 2008, New Mexico claimed three honors all season.
On top of that, New Mexico has now accumulated five honors outdoors between the men and the women, eclipsing the previous best of four honors set in 2007, 2010 and 2012.
New Mexico is back in action this week as it heads to California for the Triton Invitational this Saturday in San Diego, Calif.