New Mexico track and field head coach Joe Franklin said there will be several Lobos heading to the NCAA Championships after the men and women’s teams both placed fourth at the Mountain West Indoor Championships on Saturday.
New Mexico will be sending its distance medley relay team, men’s runner Josh Kerr and jumper Jannell Hadnot to College Station, Texas to compete in the NCAAs on March 10-11.
The Lobo men scored 78.5 team points and the women racked up 72.5 at the three-day conference championship, buoyed by 15 top-three performances, including wins in four events.
“It was a really good day,” Franklin said. “We had lots of lifetime bests, some personal bests and school records.”
The men won two events on the legs of Kerr, who was victorious in the one-mile run and as the 1600-meter leg of the distance medley relay.
Kerr won the mile run easily with a converted time of 3:58.11, just off his season-best performance of 3:58.04, which ranks eighth nationally.
Elmar Engholm finished third at 4:09.36 and Taylor Potter ran 4:15.67 to finish eighth in the same event.
On Thursday, the quartet of Kerr, Elmar Engholm (the 1200-meter leg), Mark Haywood (400-meter) and Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen (800-meter) all helped set a new UNM record of 9:38.83 to win the distance medley relay.
That time is also good for the sixth-highest mark in the nation, locking in a berth for Kerr in two events at the national championships.
It is no easy feat to qualify to run in College Station, as only the top 16 marks in individual events and top 12 in relay performances receive automatic bids to nationals.
“Getting to nationals is the easy part, it’s about performing there,” Kerr said in a release. “This is setting me up great, I’ve got a lot of confidence heading into nationals.”
Kerr’s consecutive finishes in 3:58.00 in the mile run indicates a promising performance for the redshirt freshman on the big stage.
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“The important thing was he was able to do it with multiple days,” Franklin said. “He did a great job.”
Franklin also spoke highly of the new school record from the men’s 1600-meter relay team.
The quartet of Cheyne Dorsey, Isaac Gonzales, Carlos Salcido and Haywood ran a time of 3:10.35 to grab runner-up honors.
Ben Shields placed third in the 60-meter dash (6.82), Salcido ranked fifth in 200-meter (21.63) and Gavin Sleeter took fifth place in the 800-meter (1:51.29).
Graham Thomas took third place in the 5000-meter run (14:56.08) and teammate Alexander Palm placed sixth (15:03.52). Thomas also ran seventh place in 3000-meter run (8:23.67).
In the field events, Ryan Chase placed third in the heptathlon with 5,333 points to move into second place in UNM history.
He also finished eighth in the long jump (23 feet, 3 1/4 inches), while Tanner Battikha placed third (23 feet 11 3/4 inches) and Alejandro Goldston ranked seventh (23 feet, 3 1/2 inches).
In the pole vault, Jason Atencio picked up sixth place (16 feet, 3/4 inches), and John Harari ranked eighth with same result.
On the women’s side, Jannell Hadnot contributed an individual title in the triple jump.
Hadnot, the reigning champion in the event, defended her title by executing a 43-foot-6-inch jump on Saturday. She also scored in the long jump with a seventh place finish (19 feet).
The mark put Hadnot at No. 15 in the national rankings in the women’s triple jump, making it likely she will advance to NCAAs.
The other women’s title came from distance runner Alice Wright, who emerged with the individual title in the 5,000-meter run with a meet-record time of 16:22.94.
The team also received scoring marks when Sophie Connor placed second in the 800-meter with a new school record (2:06.55). Calli Thackery also turned in a second-place finish with a 9:40.09 run in the 3,000-meter run.
The trio of distance runners were on the edge of the national championships, finishing just outside the qualifying marks at No. 19 in the nation.
Natasha Bernal placed fourth in the 3,000-meter (9:45.62) and seventh in the 5,000-meter (17:03.38), while Kendall Kelly ranked seventh in the mile run (4:48.85).
The women’s distance medley team of Connor, Larimar Rodriguez, Hannah Riker-Urrutia and Thackery had a runner-up performance, finishing with a time of 11:29.04.
The 1600-meter relay team of Kyra Mohns, Abigail Smith, Rodriguez and Riker-Urrutia finished in 3:48.51 to place sixth.
The women also picked up significant points in the field events.
Amaris Blount set a new school record with her toss of 63 feet, 6 3/4 inches to finish third. Mohns ranked third in the pentathlon with 3,660 points.
Shannon Fritz placed seventh in the high jump (5 feet 4 1/4 inches) and Katherine Whiting finished seventh in the pole vault, clearing a mark of 12 feet 9 1/2 inches.
Colorado State dominated the conference championships, sweeping both the men’s and women’s competition with 183 and 102.5 points, respectively.
The Air Force men placed second (177 points), and Utah State (110.5) rounded out the top-three.
On the women’s side, UNLV (99) was the runner-up and San Diego State (79) placed third.
Bo Yu is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers track and field, cross country and volleyball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Bo_YuB.
