Battikha, Prouse Wins MW Titles to Lead Lobos
MEN’S RESULTS (PDF) | WOMEN’S RESULTS (PDF) | MEN START LIST (PDF) | WOMEN START LIST (PDF)
CLOVIS, Calif.— The University of New Mexico track and field team added two more championship wins on Friday, the third day of the Mountain West Outdoor Track and Field Championships, to bring its total to three after Weini Kelati won the 10,000-meter title on Thursday night.
Tanner Battikha earned his second-straight long jump title of the year and made it consecutive outdoor titles in the event with his sixth-round mark of 24-5.00 (7.44m). His first round attempt of 23-7.25 (7.19m) would have also sufficed for the win.
The Lobos picked up an event-high 16 points in the long jump with Ryan Chase placing third following a jump of 23-2.00 (7.06m) on his second attempt. Battikha and Chase had the top two marks going in to the third round, before Isa Bynum of Colorado State moved in to second on his third attempt before ultimately finishing with his best result of 23-6.00 (7.16m) on his final attempt.
To finish off the night, Charlotte Prouse ran a championship-best time of 9:47.43 in the steeplechase to win her first conference title, finishing 9.15 seconds ahead of the runner-up. The time also served as a 11.82 second improvement over her time last year in which she finished second and is currently the third-fastest time in the NCAA behind Boise State’s Allie Ostrander and UNM teammate Adva Cohen.
For the second-straight night, a UNM runner set a Mountain West Championship meet record in a race with Prouse beating the record previously set by Elizabeth Jackson in 2001 by 8.2 seconds. Of note, former Lobo Courtney Frerichs holds the all-time Mountain West record of 9:24.41 set in 2016. Prouse became the first Lobo to win the steeplechase since Ruth Senior won in 2011, joining Senior as the only UNM female runners to win the championship event.
The women’s team collected 11 total points in the steeplechase with Alexandra Harris tallying a point with her time of 10:22.58 to finish eighth.
Jonny Glen scored in the men’s steeplechase with his time of 9:03.97, finishing sixth for three team points.
In the field events, Brent Dionisio earned two more points for UNM with his seventh-place result in the high jump. Dionisio cleared 6-7 (2.01m) on his third attempt, which was his first height that he attempted. However, it was the only height that the senior would clear as he exited the competition on the next height of 6-9 (2.06m). The Lobo was one of three competitors who finished at the 2.01m height, with the standings determined based on attempts.
Friday’s track events set up for an eventful final day for the Lobos as UNM advanced eight runners to Saturday’s finals, seven on the men side and one on the women’s side.
Steffi Jones ran the fifth-fastest time in the 800-meter run preliminaries at 2:09.43 to advance to the finals on the women’s side. For the men, Lawrence Johnson ran 10.83 in the preliminary round of the 100-meter dash to advance to the finals and Jay Griffin IV ran the second-fastest time in the 200-meter dash prelims to qualify for the final, registering a time of 21.51.
The Lobos had three of the nine overall qualifiers in the 800-meter with Kristian Hansen running the second-fastest qualifying time of 1:51.86 to automatically advance to the finals. Max Wharton (1:52.12) and Gavin Sleeter (1:52.21) both advanced on time.
UNM had two runners qualify in the men’s 400-meter with Ben Parmoon (48.38) and Isaac Cole (48.60) running the third- and fourth-best times, respectively, in the round.
With seven events scored on both sides, the men are in fifth place with 27 points but are one point away from Air Force for fourth, while the women are in eighth place with 21 points.
The final day of competition is set to get underway at 3 p.m. MT with the men’s discus and 6 p.m. on the track with the men’s 4×100-meter relay.