RUN DMR

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In a light but very important week for the New Mexico track and field team, key athletes will be in action in a pair of meets over the weekend.

The Lobos will send nine runners to the Alex Wilson Invitational, hosted by Notre Dame at Meyo Field in Indiana. UNM will compete in the distance medley relay on both the men’s and women’s side for the first time this season, with the goal of establishing marks in advance of next week’s Mountain West Indoor Championships.

The women have Samree Dishon, Rebecca Grieve, Tianna Holmes, Logan Neely, and Stefanie Parsons available to fill the four slots for the relay race. On the men’s side, it will be Ethan Brouw, Abdirizak Ibrahim, Matthew Larkin, and Jevon O’Bryant who compete on Saturday.

At the Albuquerque Convention Center, star jumper Elizabeth White will compete in the long jump at the USATF Championships. Lobo graduate student Abigail Goldstein will also compete in the championship meet, running the 1,500-meters as an unattached participant.

Lobo Track & Field Weekend Schedule
All times listed in Mountain

Friday, February 17 – USATF Championships – Albuquerque, N.M.
Watch Live | Live Results
1:45 p.m. – Women’s Long Jump – Elizabeth White

Saturday, February 18 – Alex Wilson Invitational – Notre Dame, Ind.
Watch Live | Live Results
9:40 a.m. – Women’s Distance Medley Relay – UNM Women
10:10 a.m. – Men’s Distance Medley Relay – UNM Men

Saturday, February 18 – USATF Championships – Albuquerque, N.M.
2:58 p.m. – Women’s 1,500-Meters – Abigail Goldstein (Unattached)

Breaking Down the DMR
While Saturday will mark the first time this season that the Lobos compete in the distance medley relay, both the men’s and women’s teams will enter the race with lofty expectations and target times in mind. On the women’s side, five Mountain West schools have posted DMR marks thus far in 2023 with San Diego State leading the conference at 12:00.03 minutes. On the men’s side, only two schools have run a DMR this season, with Utah State holding the top time at 9:51.42 minutes.

On the NCAA national lists meanwhile, Washington ran the top time with an NCAA record mark of 10:46.62 minutes to lead all women’s DMR teams. The men’s DMR list is topped by Virginia, which ran a time of 9:27.80 minutes. The Lobos are automatically eligible to compete in the Mountain West Championships, but will have to be in the top-12 on the NCAA performance list in order to qualify for the NCAA Championships in Albuquerque on March 10-11.

Outlook
The Lobo women are the reigning Mountain West champions in the DMR, winning the 2022 event with a time of 11:10.33 minutes. Depending on if UNM goes with Holmes or Neely for the 400-meter leg (a game-time decision), it could be an entirely new foursome as Holmes was the only Lobo on last year’s championship unit on the trip this weekend.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that Neely, Holmes, and Grieve have each been key members of UNM’s 4×400-meter relay squad this season, which has twice broken the school record. Most recently, that trio teamed up with Aleksandra Wolczak to set the bar at 3:38.39 minutes (converted from 3:37.95) on Feb. 11 at the Don Kirby Elite Invitational. The school record in the DMR event of 10:57.77 minutes was established on Feb. 22, 2018 by the quartet of Kieran Casey, Shalom Keller, Alondra Negron Texidor, and Ednah Kurgat.

Leg-By-Leg Breakdown

Leg 1 – 1,200-Meters – Stefanie Parsons
The Lobos will look to one of their veterans to kick off the race with the 1,200-meters, as Parsons has already established three personal bests during the 2022-23 indoor season. She took down her 3,000-meter PR at 9:16.20 minutes on Dec. 3 in Boston, earned Mountain West Athlete of the Week after hitting an 800-meter PR of 2:07.44 minutes (2:08.15) on Jan. 27, and last week ran her best-ever mile time at 4:34.37 minutes in Seattle. Parsons ran on four DMRs during her career at Edinboro University from 2017-2021, helping the team to the 2020 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships title. Saturday will be her first DMR as a Lobo.

Leg 2 – 400-Meters – Tianna Holmes
Holmes is the indoor school record holder in the 400-meters, running a time of 52.71 seconds (52.60) on Feb. 26, 2022 at last year’s Mountain West Indoor Championships. That was also the last time she ran the 400-meter leg of the DMR to help the Lobos claim the title. Overall in her collegiate career, Holmes has competed in the DMR three times, with her previous two coming during her career at Wichita State in 2019.

Leg 2 – 400-Meters – Logan Neely
If the Lobos elect to slot Neely into the 400-meter position on Saturday, they’d be going with the sprinter on the roster who has performed perhaps better than anyone else as of late. Neely’s most recent performance at the Don Kirby Invitational turned heads, as she ran season bests in the 400-meters at 54.64 seconds (54.53), 200-meters at 24.71 seconds (24.64), and carried the 4×400-meter relay squad to the school record with a heroic final 200-meters in which she caught Oregon and Alabama and was 0.23 seconds from catching Illinois. While Neely has never competed in a DMR collegiately, she participated in a sprint medley relay during her career at Illinois during the 2022 outdoor season.

Leg 3 – 800-Meters – Rebecca Grieve
Grieve has made headlines virtually every week of her young Lobo career, as she has already established three school records during her true freshman season. She started her career with records of 1:32.86 minutes in the 600-meters on Dec. 2 and 38.81 seconds in the 300-meters on Jan. 21, before helping the 4×400-meter relay squad twice break the school record. Grieve also owns the second-fastest 800-meter time in the Mountain West this season at 2:07.20 minutes (2:07.91), which she ran on Jan. 27 at the New Mexico Team Open.

Leg 4 – 1,600-Meters – Samree Dishon
Dishon hinted during the 2022 cross country season that she was on her way to a year of personal bests, as she earned All-American status by finishing 37th at the national championships to help the Lobos to a runner-up finish. Since then, Dishon has hit personal bests in the 5,000-meters (15:54.27 minutes on Dec. 3), 3,000-meters (9:04.21 minutes on Feb. 10), and the mile (4:43.17 minutes on Feb. 11). Her mile time (virtually identical to the 1,600-meter leg she’ll run this weekend) was the third-fastest by a Mountain West athlete this season. Saturday will be Dishon’s first-ever collegiate DMR.

Outlook
The Lobo men have not run a DMR since the 2019-20 indoor season, so will naturally feature a brand new cast in compiling this season’s team for Saturday. The school record in the event sits at 9:24.73 minutes, and was achieved on Feb. 22, 2018 by Ian Crowe-Wright, Carlos Salcido, Michael Wilson, and Josh Kerr.

Like the Lobo women, the 2022-23 indoor season has yielded success on the relay front with O’Bryant a member of a 4×400-meter relay squad that has twice broken the school record.

Leg-By-Leg Breakdown

Leg 1 – 1,200-Meters – Matthew Larkin
Larkin has been tearing up the mile this indoor season, and is fresh off a personal best in the event with a time of 4:01.83 minutes last week in Washington. That was the fifth-fastest mile time by any Mountain West runner this season. While Saturday will mark his first collegiate DMR, Larkin is no stranger to relays having competed six times on 4×400-meter squads over the last three seasons.

Leg 2 – 400-Meters – Jevon O’Bryant
The Lobos will turn to one of the top sprinters in the Mountain West for the second leg of the race, with O’Bryant’s season-best 400-meter time of 46.52 seconds (46.41) ranking second in the conference this winter. O’Bryant teamed up with Jovahn Williamson, Rivaldo Leacock, and Brodie Young to break the school and Mountain West records in the 4×400-meter relay on Feb. 4, as that quartet sped its way to a time of 3:06.58 minutes (3:06.14) to set a new standard in the conference. The fact that Saturday will be O’Bryant’s first collegiate DMR indicates false inexperience – this will be his 30th-career collegiate relay race including his time at Barton Community College.

Leg 3 – 800-Meters – Ethan Brouw
The Lobos couldn’t have possibly scripted a better competitor for the third leg than Brouw, who is coming off a school-record performance in the 800-meters last week in Seattle. Brouw flew past his PR in the event with a time of 1:47.21 minutes, which was the fastest by any Mountain West runner this year and slotted him No. 13 on the NCAA performance list. Saturday will be Brouw’s first collegiate DMR.

Leg 4 – 1,600-Meters – Abdirizak Ibrahim
One of the Lobos’ most experienced runners, Ibrahim is the school record holder in both the 3,000-meters and 5,000-meters. He, like Brouw, is coming off one of the best performances of his career as he was just off his PR in the mile at 3:57.21 minutes last Saturday in Seattle. Saturday will be Ibrahim’s first DMR in a Lobo uniform, but he ran the race twice during his career at South Plains College during the 2019-20 season.

RECORD HOLDER WHITE LOOKS TO SHINE AT CHAMPIONSHIPS: White will be the lone Lobo in uniform at the USATF meet, as she’s scheduled to jump on Friday afternoon in her signature event. She broke the school record on Feb. 3 with a leap of 6.25 meters (20’ 6.25”), which put her at the top of the Mountain West performance list and No. 17 on the NCAA performance list.

GOLDSTEIN ON FIRE HEADING INTO USATF MEET: Although she has exhausted her NCAA indoor eligibility, Lobo All-American Abigail Goldstein has had a headline season competing as an unattached athlete. Last week in Seattle she finished in second place in the mile, cruising to a lifetime-best mark of 4:34.15 minutes to top the field. Goldstein will shift her focus to the 1,500-meters this weekend, where she holds a lifetime best of 4:15.79 minutes set on April 2, 2022 at the Stanford Invitational. This will be the first time in her collegiate career she has run the event on an indoor track.

NEXT WEEK: The Mountain West Championships descend on the Land of Enchantment, as the Lobos prepare to host the conference meet and seek championship titles. The penultimate event of the indoor season will also represent the team’s final effort to qualify individuals for the NCAA Championships, which are also in Albuquerque on March 10-11.