Day 1 Results | Day 2 Results | Team Scores
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Lobos went into the national championships just wanting to score points for the second year in a row.
And they did just that and more, finishing with the best team performance ever at the national championships.
Sophie Connor and Calli Thackery both ran to All-American honors at the 2016 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships as the University of New Mexico track & field team wrapped up competition at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
 |
|
| Sophie Connor (L) & Calli Thackery |
Behind Connor’s fifth-place showing in the mile run and Thackery’s sixth-place performance in the 3,000-meter run, the Lobo women scored at the NCAA Indoor Championships in back-to-back years for the first time in program history.
The Lobos finished tied for 30th overall with seven team points, which are the best finish and point total in program history.
The previous highs were a 36th-place finish behind six team points in 2010.
But the team scoring wasn’t the only history that New Mexico made on Saturday at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
Connor’s fifth-place finish in the mile is the best finish in any track event at an indoor championship in program history, and was good enough for her first-ever All-American honor.
She finished the race in 4 minutes, 38.83 seconds, and earned New Mexico’s second-ever All-American plaudit in the mile after Sammy Silva did it last year with a sixth-place run.
Connor managed to score her fantastic run despite a sitting in ninth place in the 10-athlete final through 400 meters. The senior out of Hertfordshire, England, quickly made up ground, however, using two race-leading laps to sit at seventh through 800 meters of the tightly packed group.
Connor made her final move in the bell lap, scooting up to fifth place as she edged by North Dakota State’s Erin Teschuk.
Overall, Connor’s time was the seventh-fastest in New Mexico history, and gave her three mile times below 4:40. She set her personal record of 4:36.37 last month in Albuquerque before winning her preliminary-round heat on Friday for spot in the finals.
Thackery also merited an All-American accolade, adding to her growing collection of postseason hardware. The senior from Yorkshire, England, was an All-American last spring in the 5000 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and added another All-American honor in the fall as part of the Lobos’ national championships cross country team.
Thackery opened the race in ninth place after 400 meters as the 13 runners toured the track. She jumped up to fourth place through 1200 meters and remained in the position with three laps to go.
As the pace of the race picked up, Thackery fell back to eighth, but recovered on the bell lap to finish in 9:09.35
Her performance is the best finish by a Lobo in the 3000 at the NCAAs and gives Thackery four of the top seven 3000-meter times in school history.
Along with Connor and Silva, Thackery is one of three Lobos to ever finish sixth place or better in a track event at an indoor national championship.
New Mexico also had entrants in two other events, as Jannell Hadnot competed in the triple jump and the Lobos ran a distance medley relay team.
Hadnot, a junior out of Oakland, Calif., finished 11th overall, leaping 42 feet, 1 ¼ inches (12.83 meters). Her finish ties Deanna Young (2011) for the best in program history.
Hadnot’s mark is the best by a Lobo at the NCAAs, however, and missed top eight by just seven inches.
On Friday, the women’s distance medley relay team placed 12th in 11:30.67 as the foursome of Emily Hosker-Thornhill, Holly Van Grinsven, Zoe Howell and Thackery combined to run the fifth-fastest DMR time in school history.
It’s the second straight year New Mexico qualified a DMR to the NCAA Championships. Last year, the Lobos took 10th.
Oregon swept the team championships for the second time in three years as the Oregon men captured their third-straight NCAA indoor title.
The Ducks won the men’s title with 62 points ahead of runner-up Arkansas (39 points) and third-place Tennessee (34) while the Duck women won with 50 points, edging second-place Arkansas (50) and third-place Georgia (45).
The Lobos have concluded the indoor season and are scheduled to open their outdoor season on April 2 as they host the Don Kirby Tailwind Invitational.