Lobos Post 10 Wins, 10 Runner-Up Finishes at Don Kirby
RESULTS (PDF)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M— Home turf proved to be good to The University of New Mexico track and field team on Saturday as the Lobos picked up 10 event wins at the Don Kirby Tailwind Collegiate Open, UNM’s lone outdoor home meet of the season.
In addition, the Lobos posted 10 runner-up finishes and nine that placed in the top three.
The Lobos had the top-three finishers in the men’s long jump and UNM took the top-four finishes in the 2000-meter steeplechase, led by sophomore Adva Cohen who cruised to a wire-to-wire win.
In the first track event of the day, Cohen finished in 6:36.41, 24.78 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Catrina Thomas (7:01.19). Alexandra Harris finished third in 7:10.61 and Natasha Bernal was fourth at 7:28.17.
Jay Griffin IV was stellar in the sprints, winning both the 100- and 200-meter dash, winning the 200-meter dash by 0.67 seconds at 21.16 seconds, and by 0.06 seconds in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.60.
Iolo Hughes won the 800-meter run at 1:58.98, 1.2 seconds ahead of the second finisher and was the top-collegiate finisher in the 1500-meter run, finishing second overall at 4:03.32.
UNM had the top-two finishers in the 800-meter, with Larimar Rodriguez completing the race at Great Friends of UNM Track and Field Stadium in 2:15.67, 1.23 seconds ahead of teammate Steffi Jones who crossed at 2:16.90.
The men’s 4×400 relay team of Gavin Sleeter, Max Wharton, Kristian Hansen and Michael Wilson closed the meet with a final Lobo win, completing the relay in 3:17.91 for the easy win.
UNM picked up four wins in the field events, with Ada’ora Chigbo, Allison Mady, Aidan Quinn and Ryan Chase collecting wins.
Chigbo was the only competitor to clear 5-6 (1.68m), which the Lobo did on her second attempt of her first bar to clear, for the event win.
Mady picked up a win in the shot put, throwing a distance of 44-3.50 (13.50m) on her fourth attempt to capture the win. Her only other legal attempt of 13.00m tied the best attempt of the second-place finisher, making her fourth throw even more crucial.
Quinn dominated in the triple jump, finishing with a mark of 49-8.50 (15.15m) in the triple jump to take the win, with four of his jumps qualifying as winning marks as the second-place finisher jumped 46-0.50 (14.03m). Quinn’s best mark came on his fifth attempt.
Chase led the 1-2-3 Lobo win in the long jump with a mark of 23-11.75 (7.31m), beating out Alvin McCray by 1.0″, who finished with a best mark of 23-10.75 (7.28m). Chase achieved his mark on his third attempt, but his sixth attempt of 7.29m would have also qualified for the win. McCray’s best mark came on his final attempt.
In the first event on the day, Beau Clafton registered a runner-up finish in the javelin with a throw of 182-2 (55.53m). Clafton, however, was the highest collegiate finisher in the event.
Isaac Cole was also the top-collegiate finisher in the 400-meter dash behind Mark Haywood, with the Lobo runner finishing in 48.25. He was followed in the standings by Wilson, who won his heat in 48.79 to finish third overall.
Brent Dionisio placed second in the high jump after clearing 1.95m on his second attempt and 6-6.75 (2.00m) on his first attempt. Dionisio was just one of two jumpers to clear 1.95m.
The success in the field events continued onto the triple jump, where Cathilee Mullings led the three Lobo entries with a second-place finish after jumping 41-01.50 (12.53m) on her final attempt. All of her four successful attempts would have registered a second-place result for Mullings.
Katherine Whiting finished second in the pole vault, clearing 11-11.75 (3.65m) on her second attempt, to finish ahead of teammate Shannon Fritz, who finished third at a height of 11-5.75 (3.50m).
It was the second top-three finish on the day for Fritz, who also finished third in the high jump with a clearance of 5-4.25 (1.63m), and finished third only on number of attempts. If taking into account just collegiate competitors, Fritz actually finished second.
In the final event of the day, the women’s 4×400 relay, UNM finished second with Sarah Smyth, Rodriguez, Jones and Abbi Rael running 4:01.71 in the event.
Individually, Rael ran to a third-place finish in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.51.
Tanner Battikha made it a podium sweep for UNM in the long jump with Battikha registering 23-4.00 (7.11m) on his first attempt of the afternoon to finish third. His other successful mark of 6.76m on his fourth jump would have also given the Lobo a third-place standing. Battikha also produced a third-place standing in the triple jump with 45-3.50 (13.80m), which he achieved on his fourth attempt.
In the women’s long jump, happening simultaneously to the men’s event, Akeisha Ayanniyi jumped 17-11.00 (5.46m) on her fifth attempt to finish third. Her final attempt at a slightly shorter 5.45m would have also solidified her third-place result. On the track, Ayanniyi also posted a third-place result in the 100-meter dash, running 12.52.
The Lobos return to competition on Friday, April 19 at the Bryan Clay Invitational hosted by Azusa Pacific.