SAN DIEGO — The kick off a four-day meet, four athletes kicked off the Lobos’ bid for the “Triple Crown”.
The University of New Mexico track and field team opened up competition at the 2015 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships with strong performances from their multi-event athletes in the heptathlon and the decathlon.
Daniel Lam and Samantha Bowe placed fourth in the decathlon and heptathlon, respectively, and Kyra Mohns was seventh in the heptathlon as the Lobos open the championships atop the SDSU Sports Deck on the campus of San Diego State University.
Beau Clafton also finished ninth in the decathlon for the men, who sit third place with five points through the first event of the championships. The women are in third place with seven points.
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| Kyra Mohns |
Having already swept the conference’s titles in cross-country and indoor track and field, the Lobos need only sweep the outdoor track titles to claim the “Triple Crown”. The men captured it last year, while the women fell just short outdoors in 2014.
Lam, a freshman from Amsterdam, Netherlands, placed in the top five in six of the 10 events, including a pair of runner-up performances in the discus throw and the pole vault.
He opened up competition on Thursday with an eighth-place performance in the 100-meter dash, finishing in 11.39 seconds. He then placed fifth in the long jump, leaping 6.75.
Lam took third in the shot put (mark of 34 feet, 7 ¾ inches) and fifth in the high jump (5-11 ½) before finishing day one with a seventh-place time of 51.96 in the 400.
To open the second day, Lam placed sixth in the 110 hurdles (15.90), before reeling off two second-place finishes, one in the discus (130-8) and the second in the pole vault (14-11).
He finished his day with a fourth-place finish in the javelin (149-8) and an eighth-place finish in the 1500 (4:55.41). Overall, he tallied 6844 points.
Clafton, competing in his first-ever decathlon, had highlights in the 100 dash (second place, time of 11.12) and the javelin (first, 180-11). He finished with 5786 points.
On the women’s side, Bowe and Mohns also aided in the women’s quest for the “Triple Crown”, as they combined for seven points. Bowe took fourth in the event with a personal-record 5115 points, and Mohns was seventh with a personal-best 4913 points.
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| Beau Clafton |
The duo opened the meet in the 100 hurdles, with Bowe taking third (14.26) and Mohns sixth (14.93).
Bowe took fourth in the high jump (5-5 ¾) and won the shot put (39-3), while Mohns was eighth (5-2 ¼) and sixth (34-0) respectively.
They concluded the opening day in the 200, as Mohns placed third (25.53) and Bowe fifth (26.09).
The second day saw Bowe continue to vie for a scoring finish, as she placed second in the long jump (19-3 ¼). She followed with an eighth-place finish in the javelin (109-11) before closing out with a 10th-place finish in the 800 (2:41.54).
Mohns placed eighth in the long jump (17-7), seventh in the javelin (111-8) and fourth in the 800 (2:25.90).
The Colorado State men swept the top-two finishes in the decathlon behind Josh Cogdill and Justin Green, while Utah State’s Chari Hawkins won the heptathlon.
The rest of the meet starts tomorrow with the women’s long jump, men’s long jump and women’s steeplechase at 4 p.m. MT. Keep up-to-date with results by visiting the MW’s official website and check back tomorrow for an update on the Lobos’ progress.