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Heading to a meet they’ve never competed at, the Lobos don’t entirely know what to expect this weekend at the Longhorn Invitational.
“We’ve never been to it before so we’re kind of going into it blind,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said.
But, with some momentum and experience on their side, the Lobos should have no problems in the Lone Star State.
The University of New Mexico track & field team heads to Austin, Texas, this Friday and Saturday for the Longhorn Invitational as it looks to continue making progress for the rapidly approaching postseason.
Making the trip to Mike A. Myers Stadium for the first time in the regular season, Franklin and his Lobos have designs on gaining some final improvement in their final meet before the Mountain West Championship in mid-May.
“We’re going into a big competition at Texas,” Franklin said. “… We have to make sure that they’re prepared, because two weeks later we’ve got the conference championship. So it’s doing the things that you can do to prepare for the conference championships.”
Knowing that this is essentially the team’s final chance to compete before traveling to Logan, Utah, for the conference meet on May 10-13, a handful of Lobos are aiming to fine tune and pick up some final experience in Austin.
New Mexico has made steady progress throughout the outdoor campaign, and this week’s meet — which features strong teams including Auburn, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia Tech and host Texas — can help facilitate more improvement.
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| Kyra Mohns |
“We’ve had good progression just about everywhere and we have to continue to do that,” Franklin said. “And in the places where we haven’t progressed, we need to do that and need to make sure we’re making steps toward the conference lists.”
Additionally, the Lobos will look to climb up the regional rankings with an eye on returning to Austin in late May.
Right after the MW Championships, the top 48 athletes in each event in the NCAA’s West Region advance to the NCAA West Preliminary Championship on May 25-27 at Mike A. Myers Stadium. From there, athletes can qualify to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
Leading the charge this week will be New Mexico’s field event athletes, including triple jumpers Jannell Hadnot and Sam Trigg.
Hadnot will look to extend her MW lead in the women’s triple jump, while Trigg will look to build on a strong performance two weeks ago in California.
Freshmen Tanner Battikha and Alejandro Goldston will look for additional experience in the long jump, while Jason Atencio and Nathan Burnett are aiming for big bars in the pole vault.
Ryan Chase (shot put/discus) and Malik Matthews-Gordon (javelin) are also heading to Austin.
For the women, Amaris Blount is competing in the hammer throw, with Allison Mady (shot put/hammer) and Kyra Mohns (javelin) joining her in the throws.
Shannon Fritz (high jump/pole vault), Mohns (100 hurdles/400 hurdles) and the 800-meter duo of Larimar Rodriguez and Hannah Riker-Urrutia round out the women’s contingent.
On the track for the men, Carlos Salcido and Mark Haywood both will run the 200- and 400-meter dashes, with Mustafa Mudada and Cheyne Dorsey entered in the 400 hurdles.
The Lobos will also run a 4×100 meter relay and a 4×400 meter relay.
Fans can follow the Lobos on Twitter (@lobo_track) and Instagram (@lobo_xc_tf) for information and updates on the team!