Women’s Qualifiers | Men’s Qualifiers
INDIANAPOLIS — The University of New Mexico track & field team qualified 17 individuals to the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Preliminary Championships competition, the national selection committee announced Thursday.
The Lobos will send nine women and eight men to the NCAA West Preliminary championships at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California, next week with the goal of placing in the top 12 of their respective events.
A top-12 finish at the preliminary rounds — which are split between the West region in Sacramento and the East region in Tampa, Florida — advances a competitor to next month’s NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Qualification to the preliminary championships competition is based on the descending-order list for the season, segregated by east and west sites. For each individual event contested at each of the preliminary-round competitions, the top 48 declared student-athletes will be accepted.
As a team, New Mexico earned five top-three seeds, with four coming from the Lobos’ 12th-ranked women’s team.
Ednah Kurgat leads the West Region in the 5,000-meter run, entering at the No. 1 seed with a UNM and Mountain West record time of 15 minutes, 20.06 seconds. Close behind is third-seeded Weini Kelati, who enters with a time of 15:22.71.
Congratulations to these 17 Lobos that have qualified to the 2018 NCAA West Preliminary Round next week in Sacramento, California! #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/GUwwih4Zpr
— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) May 17, 2018
The Lobo women also have a pair of No. 2 seeds in Alice Wright (10,000) and Charlotte Prouse (3000 steeplechase). Wright enters with a school-record time of 32:15.73, and Prouse owns a seed time of 9:50.47.
Rounding out the women’s qualifiers on the track are Kieran Casey in the 1500 (seeded 25th, time of 4:22.29), Alondra Negron Texidor in the 3000 steeplechase (31st, 10:24.45) and Sophie Eckel in the 10,000 (36th, 34:19.40).
In the field events, Ada’ora Chigbo qualified in the high jump (27th, 5-9 ¾), while Michelle Traynham qualified in the javelin (35th, 155-3).
Wright, Casey and Eckel are all making repeat appearances, with Wright advancing to her fourth-straight NCAA West Prelims. Prouse also advanced in 2016 while at Washington, while Kurgat qualified to two NCAA East Preliminary Rounds while at Liberty.
Josh Kerr, the reigning NCAA champion in the 1500, is the men’s top-three seed as he enters the competition ranked No. 1 in the metric mile with a seed time of 3:35.01 that doubles as the NCAA record.
The New Mexico men also have a pair of top-15 seeds with Ian Crowe-Wright in the 1500 (14th, 3:43.19) and Michael Wilson in the 800 (15th, 1:48.35).
Additionally, the New Mexico men have qualified Carlos Salcido in the 400 (29th, 46.53) Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen in the 800 (33rd, 1:49.77) and Jonny Glen in the 3000 steeplechase (42nd, 8:56.82)
In the field events, Mountain West championships Brent Dionisio and Tanner Battikha qualified, with Dionisio going in the high jump (29th, 6-11 ½) and Battikha in the long jump (44th, 24-8 ½).
The 17 total qualifiers also continues a trend of large groups advancing to the preliminary competition. Since the NCAA reconfigured its preliminary rounds into two regions in 2010, New Mexico has qualified at least 10 athletes every season.
This year’s group of 17 Lobos is the largest since 20 individual and a relay team qualified in 2016.
The three-day preliminary round starts Thursday, May 24 and runs through Saturday, May 26.
Fans can follow @UNMLoboXCTF on Twitter and Instagram to keep track of the Lobos!