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Mountain West Outdoor ChampionshipsAs the academic year comes to a close, that means one thing for the Lobos.
It’s championship time.
The University of New Mexico track & field team is heading to Logan, Utah, as it looks to capture some wins at the Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships this Wednesday through Saturday.
Behind a number of top-ranked standouts, the Lobos have the athletes and the talent to contend for a league title, but this week’s affair at the Ralph Maughan Track Stadium is shaping up to be close and competitive.
“The conference as a whole just is the best it’s been in years, even back when there were other schools in the conference,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said. “The conference right now is incredibly deep in all events.”
With so many skilled teams and athletes descending on Logan, the Lobos know that they will have to perform at a high level to score some points.
UNM has 12 athletes and relays ranked in the top five in the conference in their respective events, but the rest of the conference — 11 women’s teams and seven men’s teams — has the balance and depth to make this week’s championship interesting.
“We need to make sure the athletes do everything they can to win their events and put themselves in a spot where they have a chance,” Franklin said. “We need to make sure we go out and score as many points as possible.”
Heading into the meet, Colorado State looks to be the frontrunner in both the men’s and women’s title races, Franklin said, with New Mexico and the rest of the conference battling for the other podium spots.
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“The expectations are to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to score as many points as possible while still trying to prepare people for the national championships,” Franklin said.
The Lobos will look to their top athletes to spearhead their efforts this week, with a handful of those athletes eyeing both conference titles and berths to the NCAA Championships.
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. From there, athletes can qualify to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
On the men’s side, Josh Kerr leads the charge, taking his world-leading time in the 1,500-meter run to Logan. The defending MW champ in the metric mile (and defending NCAA champ in the mile run indoors), Kerr will look to defend his title.
Also in the middle-distance and distance events, the Lobos have Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen, Gavin Sleeter, Adam Monroe and Kerr in the 800; Emil Danielsson and Taylor Potter in the 1500; Alexander Palm, Graham Thomas and Danielsson in the 5000; and Palm in the 10000. Thomas will also run the 3000 steeplechase.
New Mexico will also rely on its talented jumpers for some big points. Freshman Tanner Battikha leads the league in the long jump, while Sam Trigg is second in the triple jump. Both will compete in both horizontal jumps, with Alejandro Goldston and Ryan Chase joining in the long jump.
The rest of the field events are another source of points, with Jason Atencio, Nathan Burnett, John Harari and Daniel Lam in the pole vault and Malik Matthews-Gordon, Nik Aston and Chase in the javelin.
Lam and Chase are also competing in the two-day decathlon starting Wednesday.
Elsewhere on the track, the Lobos will look to Carlos Salcido and Mark Haywood in the 200 and 400, respectively, while Mustafa Mudada and Cheyne Dorsey run the 400 hurdles.
UNM will also run a pair of top-five relay teams in the 4×100 meter relay and the 4×400.
For the women, the biggest scoring threats are the distance races and the jumps.
Alice Wright is racing the 5000 along with Sophie Eckel, Kendall Kelly, Natasha Bernal, Ruth Haynes and Sarah Laverty.
Kieran Casey in the 1500, Bernal in the steeplechase and Laverty and Haynes in the 10000 can also score points for the Lobos.
The jumps will be led by Jannell Hadnot, who leads the league in the triple jump. Hadnot has won back-to-back triple jump titles and looks to become the just the third athlete in MW history to win three straight titles in the event.
Hadnot will also compete in the long jump, with Shannon Fritz entered in the high jump. Rounding out New Mexico’s field event entries are Allison Mady (shot put/hammer throw), Amaris Blount (hammer) and Morgan Smith (javelin).
Kyra Mohns will compete in both the heptathlon and the 400 hurdles.
On the track, Erynn Caldwell is entered in both the 100 and 200, with Larimar Rodriguez and Hannah Riker-Urrutia slated to run the 800.
The meet starts Wednesday with the women’s heptathlon at 2 p.m. MT, and continues Thursday with the completion of the multi-events at 2 p.m. and the men’s and women’s 10Ks starting 6:15 p.m.
Friday’s activities start at 10 a.m. MT in the field and at 3:30 p.m. MT on the track. On Saturday, events start at 2:30 p.m. MT with the awards ceremony scheduled for 7:25 p.m. MT.
Live results are located at RecordTiming.com, and daily recaps will be posted at GoLobos.com.
Fans can follow the Lobos on Twitter (@lobo_track) and Instagram (@lobo_xc_tf) for information and updates on the team!