UNM T&F Set to Host MW Championships
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Mountain West Conference Championship time is here and for The University of New Mexico track and field team, the setting will be familiar.
For the fifth consecutive year and the 10th time all-time, the Lobos will host the three-day meet at the Albuquerque Convention Center, marking the fifth time this season that UNM will compete on its home turf.
Going into the competition the UNM women are ranked a program-best fifth in the USTFCCCA TFRI team rankings released on Monday and have been rated the best group in the mile, the 3000-meter and the 5000-meter.
The women have four athletes ranked first in the Mountain West, with three in running events and one in the field events, and 12 athletes total amongst the top-five in the Mountain West in their respective events.
Of those top times, Weini Kelati holds two of them, both of which also produced UNM program records. Kelati’s time of 4:33.34 in the mile and her 8:53.98 in the 3000-meter stand as the top times in the conference. Her mile time is 2.45 seconds faster than the second-fastest runner in the MW and her 3000 time is 1.28 seconds faster than the next time in the conference. Both No. 2 times belong to Allie Ostrander of Boise State.
Kelati won the 3000-meter race last year, defeating Ostrander by 3.49 seconds with her winning time of 9:13.40. Both will compete in the event this year, scheduled for 2:05 p.m. on Saturday.
UNM runners have the first-, third-, fourth- and fifth-best times in the 3000-meter in the MW this season with Kelati, Ednah Kurgat, Hannah Nuttall and Adva Cohen, respectively, and will run all four plus Sophie Eckel, Charlotte Prouse and Mackenzie Everett in the event this weekend.
Cohen is ranked in the top five in three events: the 800-meter, the mile and the 3000-meters, and besides running the 3000-meter will also be an option for the distance medley.
Fellow distance runner Kurgat holds the top time in the conference, and in the NCAA, in the 5000-meter with the 15:14.78 time that broke her own school and MW indoor record in the event. Kelati holds the second-fastest time at 15:15.24. Of the top six times in the conference in the 5000-meter, four of them belong to Lobo runners and all six were run at the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 1. However, neither Kelati or Kurgat will run in the event at the championships.
Ada’ora Chigbo leads the MW in the high jump with her clearance of 5-10.5 (1.79m), 0.5″ higher than the second-best jumper in the conference. Joining her in the top five in the field events is Cathilee Mullings, who holds the fourth-best mark in the triple jump with 40-6 (12.34m).
The men’s team has three runners with the top times in their events and 12 student-athletes in the top-five in their events.
Sprinters Jay Griffin IV and Carlos Salcido rank first and second, respectively, in the 200-meter dash. Griffin’s top time of 21.14 that he ran at the New Mexico Team Invitational to set the school record earlier this year was 0.21 seconds faster than Salcido’s 21.35 that he ran at the same meet to hold as the second-best time this season by a runner in the MW.
Salcido, however, holds the top time in the conference in the 400-meters with his 47.36 that he ran in the opening weekend in Boston at the Boston University Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.
The Lobos have three runners in the top five of the 800-meter run, behind Michael Wilson’s conference-best 1:49.17. Kristian Hansen is just 0.07 seconds behind Wilson in second at 1:49.24 and Max Wharton’s best time of 1:50.53 ranks fourth in the conference amongst all runners.
In the mile, Jonny Glen has produced the third-fastest time of 4:05.80 to lead the Lobos in the event.
In the 60-meter dash, Elijah Lilly recorded the fifth-fastest time with 6.89 that he ran last weekend at the NAU Tune Up.
UNM has four men in the top five in field events, led by the second- and third-best marks in the long jump. Ryan Chase (second) and Tanner Battikha (third) are third in the long jump, while Aidan Quinn is second in the triple jump and Brent Dionisio has the fourth-best height in the high jump.
Historically, the last time that UNM won the conference championship was 2015, when both the men’s and women’s team took the title. The men have won three times (2013, 2014, 2015), while the women have stood on top of the podium twice (2014, 2015).
Last year, the men finished fourth with 96.50 points and the women fifth with 60.50 points.
All three days will be streamed on FloTrack, which can be accessed HERE. The full schedule of events can be found HERE, but Thursday’s schedule will begin with the men’s heptathlon with Ryan Chase and Camillo Dünninger at 10 a.m. and the women’s pentathlon at 11 a.m.