by Todd Burns
Daily Lobo
UNM welcomes eight schools to the Great Friends of UNM Track stadium this week for the Mountain West Conference Outdoor Championships May 14-17.
Competition starts with the women's heptathlon and the men's decathlon at noon on Wednesday.
The main competition begins Friday with the field events starting at 10 a.m. and the qualifying running events beginning at 1:30 p.m.
The women's javelin kicks off Saturday's competition with the final running events starting at noon. BYU, CSU, Air Force, Wyoming, UNM and Utah will compete for the men's title.
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The same teams will challenge each other for the MWC women's title with the addition SDSU and UNLV.
If history repeats itself, BYU will run away with the men's and women's titles followed closely by CSU, which has consistently finished near the top of the conference. BYU took home the MWC Indoor Championship this year and captured the 2002 Outdoor Championship.
Some Lobos to look out for are senior Keren Sari-Bentzur, who has dominated in the women's heptathlon, and junior Mark Johnson, who won last year's MWC decathlon on the men's side.
Junior Bridgid Isworth should compete for first-place in the women's pole vault and senior David Lloyd has the potential to run away with the victory in the men's 400-meter hurdle race.
Lloyd will also run on the men's 4x100 meter relay. Head coach Matt Henry said the 4x100 team has the ability to break the 1965 school record of 39.84 seconds. A big performance is also expected from UNM junior distance runner Matt Gonzales.
The meet is free to all spectators on Wednesday and Thursday. Admission for Friday and Saturday's events is $6 for adults and $3 for children.
