Women’s Declarations | Men’s Declarations
INDIANAPOLIS — Four University of New Mexico track & field athletes and a relay team have declared to compete at the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 10-11, the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Committee announced Tuesday.
Slated to compete at the NCAA Championships next weekend in College Station, Texas, are Sophie Connor, Alice Wright and Jannell Hadnot for the women and Josh Kerr and a distance medley relay team for the men.
The top 16 individual athletes and the top 12 relay teams in every championship event advance to the national meet, which will be contested at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M University next Friday and Saturday.
Connor is seeded 14th in the mile with a clocking of 4:36.86, becoming just the third Lobo ever to make the national championships in the same event in back-to-back years. Last season, she was an All-American in the mile, and is just the third Lobo to make the NCAAs in the mile, joining Josephine Moultrie (2012) and Sammy Silva (2015).
Hadnot is also the one of the three Lobos to advance to consecutive NCAA Championships in the same event, qualifying in the triple jump for the second year in a row. She is seeded 15th with a school-record mark of 43 feet, 6 inches (13.26 meters). Deanna Young (2009 and 2011) is the only other UNM athlete to advance to the NCAAs in the triple jump.
Wright rounds out the women’s contingent, seeded 15th in the 5,000-meter run with a seed mark of 15:56.94. This is Wright’s first-ever NCAA bid indoors, but she is a five-time All-American in cross country and outdoor track. She is the fourth Lobo to make the NCAAs in the 5K indoors.
On the men’s side, Kerr leads the group, seeded eighth in the mile run with a personal-record time of 3:58.04. He is the fourth New Mexico athlete to qualify to the NCAA Championships in the mile run, and the third since 2009, joining two-time NCAA champ Lee Emanuel (2009-10) and Elmar Engholm (2014-15).
Kerr and Engholm also qualified in the distance medley relay, where they will join up with Mark Haywood and Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen. The quartet is seeded sixth with a time of 9:30.07 that doubles as the UNM record.
It’is the third consecutive year that New Mexico has qualified a DMR team to the NCAAs, with the Lobo women taking a DMR in 2015 and 2016. It’s the first DMR on the men’s side to make the NCAA Championships since 2011.
The four individuals and the relay team ties 2009 and 2011 for the second-largest party ever qualified to the NCAA Championships. Additionally, with the four individuals and the relay team accepting bids for the NCAAs, the Lobos are sending at least four athletes to the indoor championships for the ninth consecutive year, extending the longest streak in program history.
Live results will be available on RecordTiming.com and the meet will be streamed live on ESPN3 on March 10 starting at 6:25 p.m. ET and March 11 starting at 4:55 p.m. ET. A re-air of the championship will take place on Sunday, March 12 starting at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
Fans can follow the Lobos on Twitter (@lobo_track) and Instagram (@lobo_xc_tf) for information and updates on the team!