Lobo T&F Splits Between Don Kirby Invitational and Boston This Weekend

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – New Mexico Track & Field splits up for competition at home and away this weekend, set to host the Don Kirby Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center (Feb. 9-10) while sending 14 distance athletes to the David Hemery Valentine Invitational those same days.

This weekend will be the second of three regular-season meets in Boston — the host city for this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships — for the Lobos, who got record-breaking performances from Habtom Samuel, Evans Kiplagat and Lukas Kiprop in their first trip there on Dec. 2. Kiplagat and Samuel will both be making their return to sea level along with Jonathan Carmin, Luke Cunningham, Samuel Field, Thomas Termote, Hanna Bruckmayher, Klara Dess, Sarah Eckel, Semira Firezghi MEbrahtu, Mercy Kirarei, Sophia McDonnell, Gabriella K. Szabo and Harriet Tuson.

This weekend’s events – as well as all of UNM’s collegiate home meets this season – will be exclusively live streamed via FloTrack, with live results available via the schedule tab at GoLobos.com. Heat sheets will be posted to the Home Meet Information tab on the UNM Track & Field page as well as on the 2023-24 Track Schedule.

Don Kirby Invitational
Feb. 9-10 | Albuquerque, N.M. | Albuquerque Convention Center

David Hemery Valentine Invitational
Feb. 9-10 | Boston, Mass. | Boston University Track & Tennis Center

A PREMIER SURFACE
The current surface – the same WSTY Mondo used at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo – at the ABCC was unveiled in March 2021 and cost $3 million in total, with renovations that helped solidify the city’s ability to attract and keep hosting national meets that bring the best competition to Albuquerque. Since 2005, 102 indoor track meets have been hosted at the ABCC — 16 being national championship events at either the collegiate or national level — and indoor track has generated over $30 million in revenue for the city of Albuquerque in that span.

SO FAR THIS SEASON
In the USTFCCCA’s initial TFRI team ranking, the UNM men clocked in at No. 12 in the nation — their highest team ranking in history. UNM ranked in the Top 25 in the nation in nine different events in the USTFCCCA’s #EventSquad rankings released this week: the men’s 800m (No. 8), men’s mile (No. 8), men’s 3,000m (No. 4), women’s 800m (No. 20), women’s mile (No. 21), women’s 3,000m (No. 13), women’s long jump (No. 14), women’s triple jump (No. 13) and women’s pole vault (No. 13).

Through six meets so far this indoor season – two before the break – UNM athletes have produced 24 marks that rank among the top 10 in program history in their respective  events, including five last weekend.

Habtom Samuel was named MW Freshman & Athlete of the Week for back-to-back weeks after putting down the second-fastest mile time in the nation (3:53.92 with elevation conversions) at the MLK Jr. Invitational last Saturday — the fastest collegiate performance in ABQ Convention Center history and his third UNM program record. He previously broke the school record in the 3,000m at the UW Indoor Preview on Saturday with a 7:45.61 time that ranks No. 6 in the nation. Samuel also holds the school indoor record in the 5,000m after posting a 13:14.85 time in his debut at the Sharon Danville-Colyear Opener in Boston on Dec. 2 – that time ranks fourth in the nation.

After running the fastest 3,000m time in the Mountain West in her debut race last weekend at the UNM Team open, Mercy Kirarei became the Lobos’ first female Freshman / Athlete of the Week this season. Kirarei, a native of Eldoret, Kenya who joined the Lobos at the semester, ran the 17th-best in the nation on Friday, winning the event with a 9:17.32 time that converts to a 9:03.60 for NCAA qualifying purposes. That performance — mere weeks after Kirarei got on campus — ranks No. 5 on the UNM all-time indoor list.

LAST TIME OUT
UNM athletes produced 11 new PR’s and five new Top-10 marks in their respective events at the UNM Collegiate Classic last weekend:

• Alyssa Gregory PR’d twice to get the day started with an event win in the women’s “B” pole vault, jumping 3.89 and 4.04m to move to No. 3 on the UNM all-time list and beat her previous best (3.36m) by .68m. She scratched out at the 4.19m mark, which would’ve beaten the current program record by .08m.
• Gregory is the third UNM women’s vaulter to clear 4.00m this season – the first time in program history that three female Lobo vaulters have done so in the same season. True freshman Kyle Hatler followed with a lifetime PR of his own in the men’s vault, jumping 4.80m (15′ 9″) to finish tied for fourth on the men’s side.
• The Lobos’ lone competitor in the 600m, Gabriella Szabo ran a lifetime PR with a 1:34.00 finish – the seventh-fastest indoor 600 in program history. Through her first two races in a UNM uniform, the Hungarian national has ran new personal bests in both the 800m and 600m.
• UNM’s Aussie duo of Ethan Brouw and Dylan Burrows placed third and fourth behind a pair of professionals to finish at the top collegians of the day in the men’s 800m. Brouw put down a 1:48.05 modified mark that would rank 18th on the TFRRS D-I NCAA Indoor Qualifying list, with Burrows getting a 1:48.25 converted PR that would rank 20th. In the second heat, Osaze Williams ran a 1:52.50 converted time to finish ninth overall.
• UNM swept the top two spots in the men’s and women’s mile races, with Samuel Field (4:03.86) and Mercy Kirarei (4:42.07) racing to comfortable event wins ahead of new personal bests from Thomas Termote (4:08.24) and Hanna Bruckmayer (4:42.34).
• Bruckmayer’s performance was her first in a UNM uniform after joining the Lobos at the semester, and Kirarei was racing in her first collegiate mile after running the fastest 3,000m in the Mountain West last week – their times would rank fourth and fifth on the current Mountain West performance list. Field already holds the No. 2 spot on the MW list with his 4:02.05 season best, but Termote’s new PR would rank 15th in the conference.
• Pouzancre Hoyer picked up UNM’s first PR of the meet – and her second in the last two meets – in the unseeded women’s 200m, finishing with a 24.29 modified time that moved her into No. 5 in program history.
• Men’s and women’s 4 x 400m relays concluded the weekend’s competition for UNM athletes, with the men (Victor Akhalu, Tim Harris, Levente Soos, Brodie Young) winning heat three and finishing seventh overall with a 3:12.71 modified composite time. A women’s contingent (Lou-Anne Pouzancre Hoyer, Annamaria Leszczynska, Hanna Kiess, Analisa Ibarra) finished ninth overall with a 3:47.26 modified time that stands as the 10th-fastest in program history.

UPCOMING SLATE

This weekend is the final of four consecutive weekends with meets at the Albuquerque Convention Center, NCAA Indoor Championships last season. UNM’s final home meet at the ABQ Convention Center will be next week at the Don Kirby Invitational on Feb. 9-10.

After two more meets in Boston, the Albuquerque Convention Center will also be the host site for the 2024 USATF Indoor Championships on Feb. 16-17 and the Mountain West Championships from Feb. 22-24. All home meet info, including schedules, parking, media coverage and more, will be available via golobos.com/home-track-info.
The Lobos have been the host of the MW Indoor Championship in each season that it has been held since 2014. USATF Indoor Championships will be held in Albuquerque for the third consecutive year.

The top 16 competitors in the nation in individual events and the top 12 in relays will earn berths to the NCAA Indoor Championship Meet, set to take place in Boston at The TRACK at New Balance from March 8-9. Opened last year, the state-of-the-art facility touts a 200-meter hydraulically banked track, a 24,000 square-foot warmup area with a capacity for 5,000 attendees.