Staff Report
The UNM men's and women's track and field teams churned out gold medals at the 15th annual Air Force Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday and Sunday.
When the dust settled, the UNM men's team had itself a fifth-place finish with 59.5 points, while the UNM women's team came in sixth with 52 points.
Whitney Johnson made her collegiate debut on the first day of competition.
The freshman flew 12-3 1/2 to snatch first place in the women's pole vault. Johnson's ability to fly over the competition catapulted UNM into fourth place in the early standings.
Johnson's vaulting height was only the second in UNM history to go over 12 feet.
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Teammate Bridgid Isworth is the only other Lobo woman to clear 12 feet. Johnson's height was almost 10 inches higher than the runner-up, from Utah State.
The men's distance relay team of Nate Clem, Mick Smiel, Nick Martinez and Randle McCain had its taste of the podium as well, coming in second with a time of 10:03.30 to edge out Colorado. Colorado State won the race with a time of 10:00.27.
Jacqueline Gallegos did her share to keep UNM on top, winning the nonseeded mile race with a time of 5:12.28.
Also on the first day off competition, sophomore Juan Ortega snagged a second-place finish in the nonseeded 3,000-meter race with a time of 8:50.20.
The second day of competition saw another freshman, Derek McDonald, finishing the heptathlon in first place.
Gallegos continued her stellar performance with a win in the seeded 3,000-meter race.
Ben Ortega joined Gallegos as a seeded 3,000-meter race winner with a time of 8:15.54. It was the fastest time run in the five years of coach Matt Henry's tenure.
McDonald overcame a 68-point deficit in the final two events of the heptathlon - the pole vault and the 1,000-meter race - to win his first event as a Lobo.
Gallegos won the 3,000-meter race with a career-best time of 9:56.19 to finish just ahead of Colorado State's Nicole Feest by 1.52 seconds.
Also on the women's side, junior Kimilia Davis was the first collegiate runner to finish in the 400-meter finals with a time of 57.20, only to trail unaffiliated runner Akia Davis who finished with a time of 54.20.
Runners Riann Lucy and Jaime Hall finished fifth and sixth in the 800-meter finals. Lucy ran a time of 2:20.89, while Hall ran a time of 2:21.07.
The women were also helped out by Amanda Barnes' fourth-place finish in the shot put and sophomore Jai McBride placing seventh in the triple jump with a career-best leap of 36-9 1/2.
The men's side received strong performances from freshman Zach Graham who came in second in the pole vault.
Graham tied for the lead at 16-3/4, but took more attempts to clear the height, so he had to settle for second.
Senior Willie Yuen did his share of the legwork with a fourth-place finish in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump.
On the track, Martinez grabbed a fourth-place finish in the seeded 3,000 with a time of 8:29.94, while freshman Jarrin Solomon's debut ended with a sixth-place finish in the 400-meter finals with a time of 49.59.
