SAN MARCOS, Texas — The University of New Mexico track & field team posted a number of strong marks this weekend at the Bobcat Classic as it continued to gain experience for the quickly approaching postseason.
With the Mountain West Outdoor Championships in less than two weeks, the Lobos combined for a solid team performance at the Bobcat Track and Field Stadium as it built on a solid past fews weeks of outdoor action.
Between the exceptionally productive Bryan Clay Invitational last weekend and this weekend’s showing in San Marcos, New Mexico has started to compile strong postseason credentials.
The Lobos that competed at this week’s Bobcat Classic not only moved closer to challenging for key points at the conference meet in Clovis, California, on May 9-12, but also moved toward bids for the NCAA West Preliminary Round in late May.
Top 48 athletes in each event in the NCAA’s West Region advance to the NCAA West Preliminary Championship, the qualifying meet for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
Leading the charge were New Mexico’s sprinters and distance runners, who tallied a bevy of new seasonal bests.
In the sprints, Carlos Salcido ran a time of 21.06 seconds in the men’s 200-meter run, his fastest wind-legal time of the season, to win the event.
Mark Haywood also chipped in a solid clocking of 48.01 seconds in the 400 to place third, where he was followed by Ben Parmoon (seventh place, season-best time of 48.60) and Isaac Gonzales (ninth, 49.13).
That quartet combined for second place in the men’s 4×400 meter relay, finishing in 3:10.79.
New Mexico’s hurdlers also contributed some solid times, with Kyra Mohns running a time of 1:00.54 to place second in the women’s 400 hurdles and Ryan Chase posting a mark of 15.16 to place fifth in the men’s 110 hurdles.
In the middle-distance events, Alondra Negron Texidor paced a small group of Lobos as she placed third overall in the women’s 1500 with a time of 4:30.98. Alex Buck added a season best of 4:38.42 for sixth, while Elizabeth Weiler took 10th in 4:46.45.
Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen captured a win in the men’s 800, running a time of 1:50.73, while Steffi Jones took fourth in the women’s 800 in 2:13.75.
Out in the field events, UNM continued to shine, registering a handful of strong performances.
Allison Mady claimed an all-conditions personal record in the shot put, launching a toss of 45 feet, 5 inches to place third overall and climb to sixth all-time in the event in New Mexico history.
Michelle Traynham registered a winning toss of 146-8 in the javelin, where she was joined by Sara Reyes (third, 124-10) and Morgan Smith (fifth, season best of 113-2).
Also earning an event title was Ada’ora Chigbo in the high jump (5-7).
Elsewhere, Mohns equalled her PR in the long jump with a leap of 18-1 ½, while Shannon Fritz placed seventh in both the high jump (5-5) and pole vault (11-3 ¾) and Katherine Whiting tied for fifth in the pole vault (11-9 ¾).
The men field-event athletes claimed two event titles behind Brent Dionisio in the high jump (season-best mark of 6-8 ¾) and Daniel Lam in the pole vault (season-best mark of 16-4 ¾).
Jason Atencio was right behind Lam in the pole vault, placing second with a clearance of 15-2 ¾.
Malik Matthews-Gordon tallied his own second-place finish in the javelin (184-9), while Beau Clafton took third (173-8).
In the horizontal jumps, Tanner Battikha nabbed two fifth-place marks in the long jump (23-2 ¾) and triple jump (44-11), while Chase tied in the long jump (23-2 ¾) and Omarei Gregory placed sixth in the triple jump (44-7 ½).
Alejandro Goldston also added a season best of 22-1 ¾ in the long jump to place 10th.
The Lobos are back in action next weekend as they send a handful of distance runners to the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford on Thursday while the rest of the team travels to the Masked Rider Open at Texas Tech on Saturday.
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