UNM DMR Runs Seventh-Fastest NCAA Time En Route to MW Title
DAY 1 RESULTS | WOMEN’S TEAM STANDINGS | MEN’S TEAM STANDINGS
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Championship season is in full effect and it didn’t take long for The University of New Mexico track and field team to get on top of the podium.
In the final event on the first day of the Mountain West Indoor Championships at the Albuquerque Convention Center, the women’s distance medley relay team of Adva Cohen, Abigail Bendle, Elise Thorner and Weini Kelati delivered a dominating performance to win the event title for the Lobos, and in the process, currently has secured a spot in the NCAA Indoor Championships.
With other conference championships still to run the DMR, the Lobos have a little under a second lead over the eighth-best time and a 3.79 second advantage over the 12th-best time, which is the cutoff for NCAA qualifying.
In addition, in the first DMR entry of the season for UNM, the Lobos won by a commanding 31.37 seconds (raw time) over runner-up Colorado State, who crossed the line at 11:43.64 (11:33.00 altitude converted).
Cohen led off the race with the 1200-meter leg and took the lead early, pushing the pace and building a lead through the first two laps. The junior continued to build a considerable lead for UNM through the first four laps and turned over the baton to freshman Bendle at 3:27 for the 400-meter leg. Bendle continued to maintain the lead for her two laps, turning over the baton to fellow freshman Thorner as the clock read 4:25, after running a 58 second leg.
Thorner ran the 800-meters in 2:09, still comfortably holding the lead over Colorado State and the rest of the teams battling for position behind her. At the 6:35 mark, Thorner turned it over to the closer, Kelati, for the final 1600-meters. In true Weini fashion, Kelati did what she does best and started to pass teams one after one with three laps remaining, eventually lapping almost the entire field albeit Colorado State by the bell lap, before finishing in 11:12.27 (11:02.10 altitude converted).
Weini was running in true Weini fashion. She lapped the entire field except Colorado State in the DMR win. #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/uDp85RYnXe
— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) February 28, 2020
The time marks the seventh-best time in the NCAA this season, the fourth-best time in UNM program history, the fourth-best time in MW Championship history and the fifth-fastest time overall in the Mountain West.
Furthermore, it is the first DMR championship for the Lobos since 2015 and just the second all-time since joining the Mountain West.
In the first event of the day with a Lobo entry, the men’s distance medley relay, the team of Iolo Hughes, Bryan Cutler, Harrison Smith III and William Fuller finished sixth in 10:05.78 (9:56.62 altitude converted).
Hughes led through the first two and a half laps of the opening leg, but fell back to fourth by the time he turned over the baton to Cutler for the 400-meter leg. Cutler turned it over to Smith for the 800-meter leg, with Smith moving up from fourth to first in the first two laps. However, the Lobos were in third when he turned the baton over to Fuller, who remained in third with two laps to go. Fuller fell back to fifth at the bell lap and Lobos would finish in sixth.
The women currently sit in third in the team standings with 10 points through two scored events and the men in sixth with three points through one scored event.
Day two of the MW Championships begin at 10 a.m. MT with the conclusion of the men’s heptathlon. For UNM, the first event of the day will be the women’s long jump with Diamond Black and the men’s long jump with Tanner Battikha, Ryan Chase and Darryl Thomas. On the track, events begin at 1:30 p.m. with the women’s mile, in which the Lobos will have five entries in Cohen, Lydia Hallam, Juanita Johnson, Isabela Nellos and Brenda Rosales-Coria.
The Lobos will be competing in a total of 13 events on Friday with 40 scheduled entries. The meet can be streamed on FloTrack with a subscription and followed through live results HERE.