UNM Set to Host NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship
HEAT SHEETS DAY 1 | HEAT SHEETS DAY 2 | LIVE RESULTS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The stage is set at the Albuquerque Convention Center, and now all that’s left to do is compete. The University of New Mexico is prepared to host the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship this Friday and Saturday with the Lobos entered in three events.
UNM will start off its meet in the 5000-meter on Friday at 7:55 p.m. MT with Weini Kelati and Emily Martin entered. The DMR team of Adva Cohen, Elise Thorner, Abigail Bendle and Hannah Nuttall complete the evening at 8:45 p.m.
Kelati will be the lone runner for UNM on Saturday, competing in the 3000-meter at 6:25 p.m. MT.
Live results can be found HERE. Coverage will be streamed on ESPN3 beginning at 5:15 p.m. MT on Friday and 3:55 p.m. MT on Saturday.
Per the policy that was announced by the NCAA on Wednesday, the championship will be held with only essential staff in attendance.
NCAA President Mark Emmert statement on limiting attendance at NCAA events: https://t.co/TIHHJjdse5 pic.twitter.com/8I1HdceDfN
— NCAA (@NCAA) March 11, 2020
For those that have purchased tickets in advance to the championship, UNM is working with the NCAA to address how fans will be able to receive refunds and will advise once details are available.
With the exception of Kelati, UNM will have five runners making their first indoor championship appearance. Kelati has run in at least one event the last three indoor championships.
Kelati enters with the second-best time in the 5000-meter at 15:14.71 and the third-best time in the 3000-meter at 8:54.66, while Martin has the 11th-best time of the entries in the 5000-meters at 15:52.37.
The distance medley relay team qualified as the ninth-fastest team with 11:02.10, which they achieved at the Mountain West Championships to win the conference title. UNM last had a championship entry in the DMR in 2018.
It will be the fourth consecutive year that the Lobos will have an entry in the 5000-meter race and the fourth time in five years that UNM will have an entry in the 3000-meter race.
Last season, Kelati finished third in the 3000-meter with a time of 9:02.44, the highest a Lobo runner had ever finished in the 3000-meter at the indoor championships on the women’s side or on the men’s side. She also ran 15:32.95 for a runner-up finish in the 5000-meter
Kelati currently has seven track All-America honors to her name, four from indoor, to go along with three in cross country for a total of 10 overall, with all but one being first team. With the addition of the two events that the junior will run in at the indoor championship meet, she will become the most-decorated All-American in UNM track and field and cross country history, surpassing Alice Wright who was a four-time All-American in cross country, a three-time All-American in indoors and a four-time All-American in outdoors. All but one of her All-America honors are of the first team variety.
The last time that UNM hosted the indoor championships was in 2014, where the men’s team finished with four team points.