ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Saturday’s meet might have been a season opener, but the Lobos looked to be well ahead of the curve in the early going.
The University of New Mexico track & field team opened its 2016 outdoor campaign with an exceptional team performance at the Don Kirby Tailwind Open, picking up a number of personal records and top-10 marks on Saturday.
The Lobos captured titles in 10 events at the Great Friends of UNM Track & Field Stadium. as athletes across the board shined in the team’s first major competition since the Mountain West Indoor Championships in February.
“There were some really good things that happened,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said. “It’ll just get better and better each weekend. This one was very low key, but we had some very positive things happen. Overall, it’s been a really good day.”
| Kyra Mohns |
Despite the long layoff between competition — just a handful competed prior to this meet in the last month — the Lobos registered strong results against solid regional competition.
Overall, New Mexico tallied a whopping 68 top-10 finishes, including 35 by the men and another 33 by the women. Eight Lobos won individual titles to go along with two titles in the relays.
Leading the charge on a comfortably warm was New Mexico’s jumpers, as they contributed four event titles.
Aasha Marler returned with a bang after redshirting the indoor season, winning the triple jump with a personal-record mark of 42 feet, 9 ¾ inches. She moved to third all-time in UNM history, just ahead of Jannell Hadnot and her second-place mark of 42-9.
Marler also dazzled in the long jump, leaping 20-3 ¾ for second place. An outdoor PR, her mark now ranks fifth in school history.
Samantha Bowe also joined the record books with a fourth-place leap of 19-9 ½. Her all-time PR ranks 10th in UNM history. Also going top-10 in the long jump was Hadnot (eighth place, 18-4 ¼).
Katherine Whiting added another individual title in the pole vault, clearing 11-11 ¾ for the win. Right behind were Annie Stirling (fourth, 11-5 ¾), Anna Duvall (fifth, 11-5 ¾) and Morgan Smith (ninth, 9 ¼).
For the men, Sam Trigg helped seal a sweep of the triple jump as he soared 50-3 ¼. His mark is now 10th all-time at New Mexico.
Trigg was also part of a large contingent in the long jump, where Allan Hamilton (third, 24-5 ¾) led Yannick Roggatz (fourth, 24-4 ½), Trigg (fifth, 23-7 ½), Scott Bajere (sixth, 22-7 ¼ in his first-ever long jump competition) and Andris Sturans (ninth, 21-5 ¼).
In the high jump, Joe Kloeppel chipped in his own first-place finish as he cleared 6-8 ¾. Markus Miller (second, 6-6 ¾) and Sturans (fifth, 5-10 ¾) were also top-10. The pole vault saw two additional top-10 finishes from Daniel Lam (third, 15-7) and John Harari (fifth, 14-7 ¼).
The throws were also productive on Saturday, with the Lobos sweeping the top finishes in the javelin behind Nik Aston (PR of 194-10) and Kyra Mohns (PR of 125-11).
Also posting solid marks in the throws were Bowe (fourth, 109-6) and Smith (eighth, 92-1) in the javelin; Allison Mady in the shot put (fourth, 41-7 ¾); Beau Clafton in the discus (eighth, 114-7) and the shot put (eighth, 41-7 ¾); and Amaris Blount in the discus (ninth, 107-4) and the shot put (eighth, 38-0).
On the track, UNM found more success, continuing on the weekend’s trend of strong races after a handful of Lobos shined at the Stanford Invitational on Friday.
| Josh Kerr |
Josh Kerr registered a superb time of 1 minutes, 51.26 second in the 800-meter run, winning the event ahead of Adam Cotton (second, 1:52.12) and Adam Monroe (fourth, 1:53.64). Julian Florez also picked up a win, crossing the finish line first in the men’s 3000 (8:44.99).
The rest of the middle distance also posted some strong times, with Lindsey Andrews (third, 10:24.15) and Kendall Kelly (seventh, 10:58.46) in the 3000 and Kendall Kelly (fifth, 4:52.56) and her sister Reiley Kelly (10th, 5:02.07) in the 1500.
Matt Bergin (fifth, 3:57.81) also led a pack of scorers in the 1500 that featured Zac Castillo (sixth, 4:01.34), Chris Graham (seventh, 4:02.74) and Tyler Valdez (ninth, 4:06.39).
In the sprints, Marler (third, 12.20) was one of the three top-10 finishers in the women’s 100 along with Haley Sanner (ninth, 12.28) and Samantha Woodman (10th, 12.50), while Holly Van Grinsven (third, 24.39) led Sanner (fourth, 24.74) and Woodman (ninth, 25.52) in the 200.
Larimar Rodriguez (second, 57.50) and Christina Clark (third, 1:00.58) also tallied solid times in the 400. In the 100 hurdles, Van Grinsven (second, 14.10), Bowe (third, 14.19) and Mohns (eighth, 15.45) all posted strong times.
On the men’s side, Ridge Jones (third, 10.72) and Bajere (fourth, 10.73) were the top Lobo finishers in the 100, with Mark Haywood (eighth, 21.83) and Carlos Salcido (ninth, 21.92) registering the best UNM times in the 200. New Mexico’s top time in the 400 belonged to Isaac Gonzales (third, 49.39).
In the 110 hurdles, it was Lam (third, 15.21) leading Roggatz (fourth, 15.68), Parker Jones (sixth, 15.80) and Sturans (eighth, 16.97).
The men’s 4×100 meter relay also had a positive day as Hamilton, Salcido, Bajere and Rigde Jones combined for a winning time of 40.70.
Rounding out UNM’s day were the 4×400 relays. The Lobos ran multiple relays for the both the men and women, with the the women’s A squad of Sanner, Howell, Rodriguez and Faith Cobb winning in 3:53.31 and men’s A squad of Dorsey, Gonzales, Kline and Haywood finishing second in 3:14.52.
New Mexico returns to action next week as it heads to the Sun Angel Classic hosted by Arizona State in Tucson, Ariz.