Stanford Invitational — Stanford, Calif.
When: Friday-Saturday, April 1-2
Where: Cobb Track and Angell Field in Stanford, Calif.
Live Results: RecordTiming.com
Meet Notes | Schedule | Heat Sheets | Live Results
Although most of the team is back in Albuquerque, a small pack of Lobos is heading to California for one of the best distance meets of the year.
The University of New Mexico track & field team is sending five distance runners to the nationally prestigious Stanford Invitational this weekend as they open their outdoor season with an eye on gearing up for the postseason.
Since Stanford’s two home meets — the Stanford Invitational this week and the Payton Jordan Invitational in late May — are some of the best for distance races, Alice Wright, Natasha Bernal, Elmar Engholm, Graham Thomas and Dan Milechman are out in California to register some strong times.
This meet has witnessed a number of strong debuts for some of head coach Joe Franklin’s best distance runners. It gives UNM’s NCAA hopefuls a chance to gauge their fitness and has been used a springboard in anticipation for other qualifying opportunities.
At this meet last year, the Wright and Heleene Tambet posted times that advanced to to the NCAA West Preliminary Championship, which is the qualifying meet for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
This weekend could also yield some times that end up ranked in the requisite top 48 in the NCAA’s West Region.
Wright, an All-American in the 10,000-meter run last year, is slated to open in the 5,000 this weekend at Cobb Track and Angell Field.
She owns a personal record of 15 minutes, 45.87 second in the event that she ran at the 2015 edition of the Payton Jordan Invite and placed third in the 5K at the 2015 MW Outdoor Championships.
Wright finished fifth at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November, helping the Lobo women to the national championship.
Bernal, a freshman from Albuquerque, is entered in the 3000-meter steeplechase, an event in which she never competed in high school.
But Bernal was the New Mexico 6A state champion in the 1600 and 3200 as a senior, and ran an altitude-converted 9:37.63 in the 3000 during the indoor season.
On the men’s side, Engholm takes aim in his speciality, the steeplechase. A two-time Mountain West champion in the event, Engholm has qualified to the NCAA West Preliminaries twice in the event.
He ranks fifth in New Mexico history in the steeplechase with a personal-record time of 8:46.49 that he set at the 2015 MW Championships. He ran 8:50.35 at the 2014 Stanford Invitational.
Thomas, a redshirt junior from Dulce, N.M., is also scheduled to run in the steeplechase. It will be his first taste of the event since 2014 after redshirting the 2015 outdoor campaign.
During his sophomore year in 2014, he ran a personal-record 9:07.59 at the Payton Jordan Invite, which is just outside of the all-time top 10 in UNM history.
Milechman, a graduate transfer from Harvard, is running the 10,000-meter run for the first time in his collegiate career. More of a 5K runner at Harvard, Milechman posted a PR of 14:19.38 in the 5000 last spring and ran to seventh in the event at the MW Indoor Championships in February.
He was one of the top runners for Franklin during cross country, leading the team at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational in October.
All of the Lobos are scheduled to compete Friday afternoon, starting with the steeplechases at 5:06 p.m. MT and ending with the 10Ks at 11:51 p.m. MT. Check GoLobos.com Saturday for a full recap of the Lobos’ results.