UNM to Host Don Kirby Tailwind Invitational Saturday
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS | HEAT SHEETS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The University of New Mexico track and field team hosts its lone outdoor meet of the season this Saturday, April 6.
Held at the Great Friends of UNM Track Stadium, the Lobos will compete against Western Colorado, New Mexico Highlands, Colorado Mesa, Fort Lewis, Dine College, and New Mexico State, beginning at 10 a.m. with the men’s javelin.
Track events begin at 10:30 a.m. with the men’s 2000-meter steeplechase. For the first time this outdoor season, four Lobos will compete in steeplechase on the women’s side, which will start following the men’s event at about 10:45 a.m. The final event will be the women’s 4×400 relay at 2:15 p.m.
The Lobos will have 54 individual entries in 20 events and two relay teams in Saturday’s meet.
UNM enters the meet coming off of a solid opening weekend of outdoor competition, where the Lobos collected two event wins at the Cal State Fullerton Titan Team Challenge and placed three runners in the top 10 of the 800-meter run at the Stanford Invitational.
Tanner Battikha won the men’s long jump and Beau Clafton won the javelin event, with UNM also having four runner-up finishers on the day in the men’s 4×400 relay team, Allison Mady in the shot put and Jay Griffin IV in the 200-meter dash.
Ben Parmoon was just one of four Lobos who finished third, joined by Gavin Sleeter and Steffi Jones, who was third in three events. In the field events, Ada’ora Chigbo placed third in the high jump.
UNM added five more top-five finishes with Larimar Rodriguez, Mackenzie Everett, Shannon Fritz, Aidan Quinn and Ryan Chase. At the Stanford Invitational, Michael Wilson finished second in the 800-meter run out of 43 runners with a time of 1:48.77, finishing just 0.48 seconds behind the winner. Max Wharton and Kristian Hansen finished sixth and seventh overall with times of 1:50.14 and 1:50.67, respectively, with Wharton winning his section.
The Lobo women enter the weekend ranked 14th in the latest USTFCCCA Track & Field Rating Index released on Monday and third in the FloTrack team rankings.
Live results can be found HERE and live updates will be provided throughout the day on New Mexico’s Track and Field social media pages (@UNMLoboXCTF).