Lobos Wrap Up Friday's Competition Across Four Meets

New Mexico Track & Field wrapped up a loaded day of competition Fridy at four meets across two states — the Bobcat Invitational (San Marcos, Texas), the Texas Relays (Austin, Texas), the Mike Fanelli Track Classic (San Francisco) and the Stanford Invitational (Palo Alto, Calif.) — with seven PR’s and two event wins.

Three Lobos closed out the night in Stanford with all-time Top 10 finishes in their first collegiate 10,000m races on the outdoor oval — Nicola Jansen ran the ninth-fastest outdoor 10K in women’s program history (32:53.18) while Evans Kiplagat (28:08.26) and Vincent Chirchir (28:19.01) ran the third- and sixth-fastest in history on the men’s side in the next race.

Tomorrow’s action will include sprints and relays at the Bobcat Invitational and 800m racing at both the Fanelli Classic and Stanford Invitational, with events beginning at 11:50 a.m. MT. Follow along with all of this weekend’s live results and streaming options at GoLobos.com/TrackResults.

AUSTIN RECAP (TEXAS RELAYS)
UNM’s day got started in Austin with the men’s 4x100m Relay Final – comprised of Gal Arad, Elijah Jefferson, Jose Cornejo and Victor Akhalu – winning the first heat with a 41.90 time that put them at ninth overall.

Lauren Fowler opened things up in “B” flight of the women’s long jump soon after, finishing fourth with a 5.92m (19’, 5 ¼”) mark to improve on her mark last weekend by .08m. Closing out the day at the Texas Relays, Elizabeth White finished sixth in a loaded Women’s “A” Long Jump with a 6.25m (20’,6 ¼”), improving from her season-opening mark last Saturday at the UNM Spring Invitational by .22 meters (8.66 inches) – that mark should comfortably put her in the Top 25 in the nation and Top 15 in the West Region qualifying lists come Monday.

“We all know Elizabeth is a high-class athlete and a real go-getter,” said sprints and jumps coach D’nara Jones. “She’s been struggling with a hip injury but hasn’t allowed that to stop her – long jumping is her happy place.”

BAY AREA RECAP (STANFORD INVITATIONAL, MIKE FANELLI CLASSIC)
Gabriella K. Szabo (4:35.44) and Sarah Eckel (4:32.82) got UNM’s day at Stanford started in the Women’s 1500m, finishing 10th in the seventh and fifth sections, respectively. Up next, Ethan Brouw finished 13th in the fourth section of the Men’s 1500, crossing in 3:57.81.

Later in the evening at San Francisco State, Dylan Burrows was the fastest finisher (3:49.55) in the men’s 1500m, winning the first section ahead of Kane Shields (6th, 3:54.73). Hanna Bruckmayer was the second-fastest finisher in the women’s 1500m, placing second in the first section with a 4:33.41 time ahead of Harriet Tuson (4:38.69) in sixth.

After a break in competition at Stanford, Sophia McDonnell finished 10th in the second of the women’s 3K Steeple with a 10:27.58 opening time in her Lobo debut in the event.

Klara Dess ran a collegiate PR (4:21.91) to finish second in her section as 1500m racing picked up again. Dess — the 2024 MW Indoor 800m Runner-Up — has now ran collegiate PR’s in each of her last four meets — she PR’d in the 400m last Saturday at the UNM Spring Invitational (58.56), the 800m at MW Indoor Championships (2:07.83) and the mile at the Boston David Hemery Valentine Invitational in February (4:42.16).

For the men, Luke Cunningham (3:55.30) finished 14th in section three, Matthew Larkin (3:51.67) finished 10th in section two and Samuel Field ran the fastest 1500m time of the day for UNM (3:45.62) in the invitational heat. Field’s first time of the outdoor season projects to be in the Top 50 in the nation and Top 15 in the West Region.

Mercy Kirarei put down a splashy PR in the second-fastest 5,000m section, finishing ninth with a 16:00.59 time that’s nearly 14 seconds faster than her indoor best set in Boston in February and more than 19 seconds faster than the 16:19.78 time that comfortable won her a MW Indoor Championship individual title. That time slots her comfortably in the Top 5 in the West Region and Top 25 nationally.

In the invitational section of the women’s 10,000m, 2023 XC All-American Nicola Jansen made her collegiate debut at that distance after redshirting the indoor season and finished 10th overall against some of the best competition in the nation with a 32:53.18 time faster than the current No. 1 in the West Region (33:52.71) as of Saturday.

Three Lobo men put down impressive sub-29 minute personal bests in the last two sections of the men’s 10K, with Evans Kiplagat finishing fifth overall in the first section with a 28:08.26 time that was 55.64 seconds faster than his 10K best in cross country in the fall — he’s less than 10 seconds away from breaking the 28-minute barrier now. Making his debut in the event, Vincent Chirchir also cracked the Top 15 with a PR of his own (28:19.01) — both were faster than the No. 1 time on the NCAA D-I Qualifying List heading into today’s action (28:21.93).

Well after midnight mountain time, Thomas Termote made it 3-for-3 with his first sub-29 10K race in the second section, finishing 18th in that section with a 28:58.77 time. Running 10,000 meters on an outdoor oval for the first time in his collegiate career, Thomas ran 70.53 seconds faster than his 31:09.3 cross country 10K best set at Mountain Regionals in November.

SAN MARCOS RECAP (BOBCAT INVITATIONAL)
The first UNM competitors of the Day at the Bobcat Invitational, Maja Gebauer (5th, 3.88m) and Kiara Quezada-Arzate (9th, 3.73m) both cleared season bests to wrap up the Women’s “A” Pole Vault – Gebauer’s mark almost assuredly gets her into the nation’s Top 50 on the qualifying list.

Annamaria Leszczynska put down her fastest opening time of her collegiate career en route to an event win in the women’s 400m hurdles, crossing the finish line in 59.56 – a time that will rank Top-50 in the NCAA qualifying list on Monday. On the men’s side, Levente Soos (52.48) and Tim Harris (54.44) finished fourth and 11th, respectively, with Soos making his collegiate 400mh debut and Harris coming just shy of his previous best (54.28).

In the final action of the day at TSU, Gal Arad (21.00) finished 11th, Brodie Young (21.22) finished 21st and Victor Akhalu (21.54) finished 36th in the men’s 200m. Lauren Fowler (23.95) and Rebecca Grieve (25.19) finished 16th and 55th on the women’s side respectively.

Fowler’s time was a new PR — an improvement of .27 seconds from her previous indoor best and .6 seconds better than her last previous outdoor best set in 2022.

“Lauren is a strong consistent performer – She was out all last season due to a stress fracture injury and it’s amazing to see her resiliency firsthand,” said assistant coach D’nara Jones. “She continues to show me every day how strong she really is & how much she wants to be successful not only as a jumper but also as a sprinter, and she’s just getting started on greater things that will come this season.”

TOMORROW’S SCHEDULE
All times MT