Lobos Produce Top Times at Payton Jordan Invitational
RESULTS | RESULTS (PDF)
STANFORD, Calif.— Tabbed as “one to watch” in one of the prime races to watch at the elite Payton Jordan Invitational on Thursday night at Cobb Track and Angell Field, sophomore Adva Cohen didn’t disappoint in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, producing one of the best races of the evening and a glimpse at races to come in the not-too-distant future.
Charlotte Prouse and Cohen started off in the front of the pack of the steeplechase, with Cohen running second with two laps in and Prouse fourth. Cohen took a lead at the four-minute mark and Prouse moved into second. The Lobo runners alternated being in the lead with Boise State’s Allie Ostrander running right with them until Prouse dropped back into fourth with two laps to go while Cohen continued to hold a stride-for-stride pace with Ostrander.
Cohen took the lead back with five barriers to go as the Mountain West competitors pulled away from the rest of the pack. After Ostrander built a slight lead after the final barrier, Cohen chased down Ostrander down the stretch with Ostrander just edging the Lobo out by 0.05 seconds. Cohen clocked a 9:45.71 for a second-place finish in her first race at that distance this season. Prouse finished fifth at 9:56.01, with both Lobos producing top-10 NCAA results as Cohen’s time checking in as the second-fastest time among all NCAA runners on the combined qualifying list with Prouse’s time seventh among all NCAA runners and fifth among just West qualifiers.
The Lobos made more noise in the 5000-meter race to conclude the night with a total team effort from the UNM distance runners.
UNM went out with five runners in front, with Ednah Kurgat and Weini Kelati having three Lobos (Prouse, Cohen and Alexandra Harris) to pace them. The Lobos remained in front for the first 800-meters before Harris broke off and UNM continued to have the first three runners in the lead with Cohen, Prouse and Kelati through 1600-meters. Prouse was the next to break off with Cohen holding the pace before dropping off at 2000-meters to leave Kelati at the front.
Kelati dropped back to third at the 2400-meter mark but made a move on the outside around the 4000-meter mark to move back into third after getting enclosed in the pack of runners. With one lap to go, Kelati was in fourth before finishing sixth at 15:23.77, however, the sophomore was the top collegiate finisher in the elite race. Kelati’s time just missed the world standard mark of 15:22 and her time was 0.31 seconds slower than her top time of the season, which still holds as the top time in the NCAA this season.
Kurgat finished in 15:32.70 as the third collegiate runner and the third-fastest time in the West to give UNM the three-fastest times run this season on the NCAA Outdoor West Qualifying list.
Cohen was one of three UNM runners to post a runner-up result as Michael Wilson placed second in his heat of the 800-meter. After sitting in fifth after the first lap, Wilson moved up to third and made a strong push down the stretch to finish second in 1:48.77, a mere .33 seconds behind the winner. Coincidentally, it was the same exact time that Wilson ran the last time he ran the event on this track at the Stanford Invitational on Mar. 29.
Wilson returned to the track to pace Ian Crowe-Wright in his 1500-meter section, in which Crowe-Wright moved into second with one lap remaining, a position he would hold for the final lap before crossing at 3:47.38 to finish second in his section.
The Lobos have one more meet this week with the Masked Rider Open hosted by Texas Tech on Saturday, May 4.