UNM Set for Mountain West Championships at Fresno State
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Championship season is upon The University of New Mexico track and field teams starting this week with the Mountain West Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Hosted by Fresno State at the Veteran’s Memorial Stadium in Clovis, Calif., the four-day meet is set to start on Wednesday with the multi-events. The Lobos will have one entry in the decathlon in Camillo Dünninger.
The women enter the conference meet with multiple top times in multiple events, including the top three times in the 5000-meters.
Weini Kelati, Adva Cohen, Ednah Kurgat are first, second and third with 15:23.46, 15:31.01 and 15:32.70, respectively. In addition, the trio hold the top-three times in the West region and three of the top four times in the NCAA. Adding in Emily Martin’s fifth-fastest time of 15:59.80 and Charlotte Prouse’s 16:16.42 that ranks seventh, the women have four of five and five in the top seven in the MW. However, only Martin and Kurgat will run the 5000-meters at the conference meet while Kelati will focus on the 10,000-meters.
Kurgat holds the second-fastest time in the MW in 10,000-meters with 32:14.27, an event Kurgat won last year in 32:31.55 with Kelati placing second at 32:41.92.
Coming off of a solid performance in the steeplechase, Cohen has the second-fastest time in steeplechase at 9:45.71 (just 0.05 seconds behind Allie Ostrander of Boise State), which is also second-best time in all of NCAA to go along with the fifth-best time in the conference in the 1500-meter (4:23.01). The sophomore is set to run in just the 1500-meter event this weekend.
In fact, the Lobos have two of three fastest times in steeplechase with Cohen and Prouse, both times of which occurred at Payton Jordan Invitational last week. Prouse is third in the steeplechase with 9:56.01 and finished second in the steeple last year with a time of 9:59.25. The junior is set to focus on the steeplechase at the meet.
UNM has three of the top-seven times in the 1500-meters with Kurgat holding the third-best time (4:18.61), Cohen fifth (4:23.01) and Prouse seventh (4:25.70).
Rounding out the Lobos in good standing to score on the track at the meet is Steffi Jones, who currently ranks eighth in 800-meters at 2:09.81.
In the field events, the women have three competitors who hold top eight spots in the conference. Cathilee Mullings has the second-best mark in the triple jump with 41-1.5 (12.53m), Allison Mady is eighth in the shot put at 46-2.5 (14.08m) and Ada’ora Chigbo eighth in the high jump at 5-7.25 (1.71m), but has won her last four meets.
The men are in just as good of shape on the track with four in the top eight, three of the top-four times, in 800-meter in Kristian Hansen (1:48.45, second), Max Wharton (1:48.61, third), Michael Wilson (1:48.77, fourth) and Ian Crowe-Wright (1:51.41, eighth).
UNM also has three of the top four results in the 1500-meter with leading the conference with a time of 3:43.96. Iolo Hughes (3:45.92) ranks third and Crowe-Wright (3:47.98) fourth, although Crowe-Wright finished second last year with a time of 3:45.55 behind former Lobo Josh Kerr.
In addition, UNM has two ranked in the top four of the 400-meter with Ben Parmoon ranked second at 48.17 and Isaac Cole fourth in 48.21, while Jay Griffin IV is ranked in the top eight in two events, holding the fastest time in 200-meter (21.18) and sixth in 100-meter (10.63). Griffin won the 200-meter dash at the indoor championships in February and was a member of last year’s 4×100 relay team that won New Mexico’s first-ever title in the 4×100 in 40.62.
Jonny Glen brings to the conference meet the third-best time in steeplechase at 8:57.60.
The field events are equally as promising for the Lobos with several entries among the top eight in their respective events and a couple coming off of MW championship wins a year ago.
Brent Dionisio is currently sixth in the high jump (6-7, 2.01m), but enters the championship after winning the high jump competition last year at a height of 6-11.50 (2.12m).
The Lobos have the top two marks in conference with Ryan Chase (24-10.5, 7.58m, first) and Tanner Battikha (24-9.75, 7.56m, second). Alvin McCray sits in sixth at 23-10.75 (7.28m). Battikha won the long jump last season with a mark of 24-8.50 (7.53m).
In the triple jump, Aidan Quinn ranks second in the conference (49-8.5, 15.15m) and Battikha is eighth (45-3.5, 13.80m).
Beau Clafton rounds out the top-eight entries with a fifth-place ranking in javelin at 196-2 (59.79m).
Historically, the men won the team title in 2014 while the women have finished second four times, the last time in 2015.
Last year the men finished third with the women sixth.
Live results will be available HERE with a stream available on FloTrack, which can be found HERE.