Lobo T&F Closes Out Regular Season at Payton Jordan Invite, Desert Heat Classic

New Mexico Track & Field will spend its last-chance weekend going for NCAA Preliminary qualifying marks at the Payton Jordan Invitational  at Cobb Track and Angell Field (Palo Alto, Calif.) on April 26 and the Arizona Desert Heat Classic at Drachman Stadium (Tucson, Ariz.) on April 27 in the Lobos’ final competition before MW Outdoor Championships May 9-11.

Sophia McDonnell and Hanna Bruckmayer will kick off the weekend in the Women’s 5,000m down at Bryan Clay on Friday night before a full slate of competition begins for the rest of the Lobos in Arizona the following day – Bruckmayer currently sits at No. 52 on the West Region Qualifying List (16:13.00) and can solidify her chances at reaching NCAA Prelims with an improvement on that time, while McDonnell is looking to put down a qualifying time in a second event (No. 16 in 3K Steeple). Stanford’s action will be livestreamed on Flotrack beginning at 4 p.m., with all live results and streaming links available via GoLobos.com/TrackResults.

Practically all of UNM’s projected point-scorers at conference will be in action in Tucson on Saturday, with field events beginning at 3:30 p.m. (MT) with the women’s long jump and track competition getting going at roughly 6:30 p.m. with men’s and women’s 4x100m relays. The final track events of the night – the men’s and women’s 4x400m relays – are slated to get underway just before 11 p.m. MT.

Friday’s action will be available to stream via FloTrack, with no stream for Saturday’s events in Arizona. Live results and streaming options for both meets will be available via GoLobos.com/TrackResults. Follow @UNMLoboXCTF on IG, Facebook and X for meet day contents and updates.

THIS WEEKEND’S COMPETITORS
Men
100 – Victor Akhalu, Jose Cornejo, Elijah Jefferson
200 – Victor Akhalu, Jose Cornejo, Elijah Jefferson
400 – Brodie Young
800 – Dylan Burrows, Matthew Larkin, Elijah Stenberg
1,500 – Luke Cunningham, Samuel Field, Kane Shields
3,000 – Vincent Chirchir
3,000 Steeple – Evans Kiplagat
10,000 – Abi Archer, Grace Connolly.
100 hurdles – Madison Romain, Tess Stapleton.
400 hurdles – Jacob Cavanaugh, Tim Harris, Levente Soos
4×100 relay – New Mexico
4×400 relay – New Mexico
Pole vault – Kyle Hatler
Long jump – Fabian Biondina

Women
100 – Ophelia Pulley
200 – Lauren Fowler
400 – Rebecca Grieve
800 – Klara Dess, Gabriella K. Szabo, Harriet Tuson
1,500 – Sarah Eckel, Nicola Jansen
3,000 – Maleah Goldie, Camille Jackson, Semira Mebrahtu Firezghi (Unnattached)
400 hurdles – Analisa Ibarra, Annamaria Leszczynska, Hanna Kiess
4×400 relay – New Mexico
High jump – Alyssa Magallanez
Pole vault – Maja Gebauer, Alyssa Gregory, Kiara Quezada-Arzate, Isabel Thomas
Long jump – Lauren Fowler, Zennia Gonzalez, Elizabeth White
Triple jump – Zennia Gonzalez, Lilee Kaasch
Javelin – Keagin Brooks, Carlotta Duenninger

RANKINGS UPDATE
The Lobos enter the weekend ranked No. 26 (Men) and No. 99 (Women) in the nation in this week’s USTFCCCA national TFRI rankings, good for 8th/9th in the Mountain Region and 4th/5th in the Mountain West. No. 99 is a season-best for the women, with the men dropping eight spots from their season-best ranking of No. 18 last week. 

In the USTFCCCA’s #EventSquad rankings, UNM ranks among the Top 50 in the nation in eight events – five on the men’s side and three on the women’s side. 

The Lobos are the No. 1 men’s 10,000m school for the fourth straight week following Habtom Samuel’s official NCAA qualifying time last Friday and also climbed to a season-high No. 6 in the nation in the women’s long jump thanks to big PR’s from Lauren Fowler, Zennia Gonzalez and Lilee Kaasch as well as a season-best mark from All-American Elizabeth White. UNM also ranks among the Top 50 in the nation in the men’s 100m (44th), men’s 200m (45th), men’s 800m (38th), men’s 1500m (29th), women’s 1500m (24th) and women’s pole vault (23rd).

LAST TIME OUT
Habtom Samuel’s NCAA qualifying time in the 10,000m and Lauren Fowler’s massive PR’s in both jumps and sprints highlighted UNM’s day of competition at the Don Kirby Tailwind Open at UNM Track & Field Complex, with 11 Lobos recording new lifetime bests and five more netting themselves probable NCAA Prelim qualifications in Friday’s competition. Maja Gebauer (PV), Habtom Samuel (10,000m), Lauren Fowler (100m, LJ), Elizabeth White (LJ) and Victor Akhalu (100m) all put down marks that are near-certain to hold through the rest of the regular season.

Samuel was named the Mountain West Track Athlete / Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this track season for his 10K performance — the second week in a row he’s ran the second-fastest time in the nation in a different event after running the No. 2 5,0000m at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, Calif. the prior weekend.

MW OUTDOORS UP NEXT
This year’s MW Outdoor Championships will be held at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis, Calif. May 9-11. The Lobos enter this weekend’s action projected 4th (M) and 5th (W) in the conference TFRI rankings, with last year’s champions Air Force (M) and Colorado State (W) projected to repeat again in 2024.

UNM has 47 marks across 16 athletes that rank among the Top 10 in the conference 24 different events — Brodie Young (400m), Habtom Samuel (1500m, 5,000m, 10,000m), Mercy Kirarei (5,000m) and Nicola Jansen (10,000m) all currently rank No. 1 in their respective events, with the Lobos owning all of the top three times in the men’s 5K and 10K.

The men haven’t won a conference outdoor title since 2014 – they finished between 3rd and 5th in each of the last eight championship meets since then. The women have yet to win a MW title outdoors – they’re looking to make it three straight seasons with a podium finish after placing third in 2022 and 2023.

THE ROAD TO NCAA’S
With just two weekends of competition left, the Lobos will turn their attention to the First Round of the NCAA postseason. University of Kentucky will host the East Preliminary in Lexington and Arkansas will host the West Preliminary in Fayetteville, with both set for May 22-25.

Participants for the 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships first rounds are determined by the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Committee. For each individual event contested at both of the NCAA Regional Preliminary Round sites, the Top 48 declared student-athletes and Top 24 relay squads in their respective regions will be accepted into the competition, with the Top 12 in each Prelim advancing to the NCAA Outdoor National Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. June 5-8. 

Nine Lobo women currently rank among the Top 48 on the West Region Qualifying List across eight events, with four among the Top 20 – Nicola Jansen (10K; No. 6), Lauren Fowler (LJ; No. 15), Elizabeth White (LJ: No. 17) and Mercy Kirarei (5,000m; No. 18). All four are currently qualifying in multiple events.

On the men’s side, nine more Lobos sit in qualifying position across seven different events – Habtom Samuel leads the way with a No. 2 ranking in both the 10,000m (28:03.30) and 5,000m (13:13.34) and 14th in the 1500m (3:41.61), with Victor Akhalu (100m, No. 18), Brodie Young (400m; No. 17), Vincent Chirchir (5K; No. 8 + 10K; No. 15) and Evans Kiplagat (10K; No. 5) making it five Lobo men ranked in the Top 20 in the region.