by Todd Burns
Daily Lobo
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -Many UNM track athletes stayed home this weekend - while many others, who had not competed for two weeks, rose to the challenge in Fort Collins, Colo.
Freshman RaShawn Jackson was one individual who answered the call of his team with a strong performance.
"We were missing two legs on the 4x100 and RaShawn Jackson stepped up and did a good job," junior Chris Garofola said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Garofola, Jackson and seniors David Lloyd and Nick Lott, outran the other Mountain West Conference teams in the men's 4x100-meter relay. Colorado State University, Wyoming and the Air Force Academy all fell to the 41.13 second time set by UNM.
Head coach Matt Henry said that Jackson's performance was not a surprise, adding that when Jackson is healthy, competitors should "watch out."
Lloyd finished first in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.90 seconds, followed closely by Garofola who clocked in at 10.95.
With only slight winds and temperatures close to 70 degrees, many Lobo athletes took advantage of the near perfect conditions. Freshman Suzanne Nguyen set a new personal record with a leap of 17 feet 4 inches, crushing her old record by 13 inches in the long jump.
Junior Jordan Parker set a personal best with a 155 feet 2 inch discus toss. Sophomore Jamie Fishencord also enjoyed the weather, setting two personal records. Fishencord tossed the discus 130 feet 2 inches and the hammer 142 feet 6 inches.
"With a discus throw like this, I should be able to place in conference," Fishencord said. "I just have to step it up and be a little more aggressive in the hammer."
Sophomore Cheyenne Renfroe set a personal best with a jump of 10 feet 2 inches in the women's pole vault while freshman Chris Ashcraft, a La Cueva graduate, failed to clear the bar in the men's vault.
For junior Mark Johnson, it was his second outdoor meet of the year. Johnson ran home with the gold medal last year at the outdoor conference championship in the decathlon. He has had problems with his back this year but he remains hopeful for the conference meet.
"I'll go down to El Paso next weekend," Johnson said. "And then I'll try and win conference again."
The Lobos finish the regular season in El Paso, Texas, next week and will then rest up for the 2003 MWC outdoor track championships at UNM, May 14-16.
Henry said that he did not run a lot of athletes this weekend to prevent injuries.
"We didn't score a lot of points," Henry said, "But scoring points wasn't our intention this weekend."
