EL PASO, Texas — The University of New Mexico track and field team received a number of strong performances across the board Saturday at the UTEP Invitational as it kicked off its final weekend of the regular season.
The Lobos claimed 33 top-10 finishes at the meet that also featured host UTEP, Texas Tech and New Mexico State, and captured some progress as they now turn their attention to the Mountain West Championships in two weeks.
With the MW Championships starting May 11 in Clovis, California, New Mexico was able to pick up some experience and move closer to postseason-caliber marks Saturday at Kidd Field in El Paso.
A handful of Lobos moved closer to challenging for key points at the conference meet, while a couple of athletes also gained some ground on the top 48 in the NCAA West Region’s event rankings.
The top 48 athletes in each event in the NCAA’s West Region advance to the NCAA West Preliminary Championship, which is the qualifying meet for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
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| Amaris Blount | |
But, within Saturday’s meet, the Lobos saw some of its athletes make their case for the postseason as they vie for spot on the team’s competitive travel squad for the MW Championships.
On the women’s side, Katherine Whiting posted the most compelling performance of the day, clearing a personal-record 12 feet and 7 ½ inches for a win in the women’s pole vault.
Whiting moves into a tie for seventh in school history, and was followed by Annie Stirling (second place, mark of 12-3 ½), Anna Duvall (fourth, 11-3 ¾) and Morgan Smith (fifth, 9-10) in placing top five in the vault.
Additionally, the women’s throwers climbed a bit higher in the New Mexico record books, as Amaris Blount and Allison Mady tossed their way to top-10 marks in the hammer throw.
Blount (third, 173-7 ¾) ascends to second in New Mexico history in the event, followed by Mady (eighth, 142-1 ¾), who now ranks seventh.
Mady (sixth, 39-7 ¾) and Blount (seventh, season-best 38-2 ¼) also registered solid marks in the shot put, ahead of multi-athletes Samantha Bowe (eighth, 38-1 ¼) and Kyra Mohns (ninth, 35-4 ½).
Mohns added an eighth-place mark of 17-4 in the long jump, while Smith chipped in a personal-record and fifth-place toss of 110-3 ½ in the javelin throw.
On the track, the Lobos received solid marks from its distance runners, as Lindsey Andrews won the 5000-meter run in 18 minutes, 39.54 seconds and twins Kendall and Reiley Kelly took fifth (4:50.29) and 10th (5:00.83), respectively, in the 1500.
For the men, the Lobos’ hurdlers all tallied season bests, with Daniel Lam (fourth, 15.08) leading the way. Coming in close behind were Parker Jones (fifth, 15.14), Andris Sturans (seventh, 16.37) and Beau Clafton (eighth, 16.86).
Jones also ran to eighth in the 200 (22.41), while multi-event athlete Clafton captured solid marks in the 400 (eighth, 49.95), shot put (third, 41-5 ¼) and discus (seventh, 115-5).
Lam and Sturans, also multi-event athletes, also had productive days. Lam added a season-best toss of 133-11 in the discus for sixth place, and Sturans claimed sixth in the long jump (19-6) and eighth in the discus (98-1).
Elsewhere, the Lobos’ high jumpers of Markus Miller and Joe Kloeppel both cleared 6-6 ¾ to go 2-3 in the event, while John Harari claimed first place in the pole vault (season-best 15-7) and Will Carter leaped to fifth in the long jump (20-7 ¾).
Rounding out New Mexico’s participation were Adam Monroe in the 800 (third, 1:53.56) and Chris Graham (fourth, 4:02.97) and Tyler Valdez (seventh, 4:07.80) in the 1500.
New Mexico has next week off to prepare for the MW Championships in Clovis, California, on May 11-14, while the rest of the Lobos compete Sunday at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Stanford, Calif.