Friday Results | Friday Team Scores
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico track & field team continued its bids for titles during the second day of the Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
Behind strong individual performances across the board, including a heptathlon title by Daniel Lam and a school record by Ada’ora Chigbo, the UNM men and women currently both sit in third place in their respective championships.
Through Friday, the second day of the three-day championships, the New Mexico men have scored 44.5 team points, with the women scoring 25.5 points.
With most of the day’s events holding just preliminary rounds heading into Saturday’s finals, the Lobos performed well in the handful of events that did go final on Friday.
The men were bolstered by Lam’s heptathlon title as he finished with a final score of 5,387 points for the win. Lam won two events (the pole vault and long jump) in the seven-event heptathlon, and placed top three in four others.
He moved to second all-time in program history in the event.
Beau Clafton was close behind in the heptathlon, finishing with a score of 5,339 points. He won two events (60-meter dash and shot put) en route to the third-best score in program history. Additionally, Camillo Dunninger placed seventh with a score of 4,786 points.
Lam also contributed in the pole vault, tying for third place with clearance of 16 feet, 2 ¾ inches. Jason Atencio also scored in the event with a mark of 15-11.
Tanner Battikha added another medalling finish for the men, leaping 23-8 ¼ in the long jump for third place.
For the women, Chigbo tallied a strong showing in the high jump, clearing 5-11 ¼ to place third and break Margaret Metcalf’s record of 5-11 set back in 1979.
She’s the first Lobo to place top-three in the event since Tiyana Peters won the event in 2008.
Additionally, Shannon Fritz tied for fifth place with a clearance of 5-7 ¼.
In the 5,000-meter run, the only event on the track with a final on Thursday, Sophie Eckel took seventh place with a time of 17 minutes, 4.46 seconds.
All of the other track events ran preliminaries Friday, with UNM advancing athletes to the finals in a number of races.
On the men’s side, Josh Kerr won the preliminary round of the mile run with a time of 4:09.26 to advance to the finals, with Ian Crowe-Wright (third place, time of 4:11.73) joining him. Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen also moved on in the 800 (sixth, 1:52.72).
In the sprints, Carlos Salcido (third, 21.45) and Jay Griffin (fourth, 21.50) both advanced in the 200 after strong prelim-round performances, with Mark Haywood (second, 48.05), Isaac Gonzales (seventh, 48.72) and Ben Parmoon (eighth, 48.80) moving on in the 400.
For the women, Ednah Kurgat won the mile prelims in 4:48.17, leading two other Lobos, Kieran Casey (fourth, 5:00.95) and Alondra Negron Texidor (sixth, 5:01.03), into the finals.
Steffi Jones also qualified to Saturday’s final in the 800, placing eighth in the prelims with a time of 2:13.73.
Through day two, the Colorado State women lead with 45 points with Air Force (26) and UNM sitting second and third, respectively.
Boise State (fourth place, 25 points), Fresno State (fifth, 24.33), Nevada (sixth, 21.5), UNLV (seventh, 17), San José State (seventh, 17), Wyoming (ninth, 16), Utah State (10th, 8.67) and San Diego State (11th, 8) sit fourth through 11th.
The men’s results have the Air Force men are leading with 66.5 points. Colorado State is second with 58 points, with the Lobos in third place with 44.5 points. Utah State (40 points) is fourth, with Wyoming (13 points) in fifth and Boise State (9) in sixth.
The final day of the championships begin at 10 a.m. MT with the men’s shot put and at noon with the final of the women’s mile. Check back at GoLobos.com for a complete recap.
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