by David J. Chavez
Daily Lobo
First place or not, senior Derek Mackel wasn't happy with his pole vaulting performance at the UNM Invitational on Saturday.
Mackel cleared 17-07.25 to win the event at the Albuquerque Convention Center, but said there's still room for improvement.
"I was a little disappointed with my performance even though I took first, because at last weekend's meet I finished with a higher mark," Mackel said. "I'm going to change my routine for practice this week by using larger poles which should improve my height marks."
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Sophomore Whitney Johnson took first place in the women's pole vault. She cleared a height of 12-11.50 to complete the sweep of the men's and women's pole vault for the Lobos.
In the high jump, freshman Tiyana Peters surpassed assistant coach Keren Bentzur's 2003 record at UNM with a mark of 5-08.00 to produce the best performance in that event in head coach Matt Henry's six-year tenure.
Freshman Hagit Salamon only had two weeks to train after visiting her native country of Israel over Winter Break, but that didn't stop her from jumping 39.01-00 in the triple jump - the highest mark in four years for a Lobo - and the best long jump at 18.04-25 in three years.
"I just got back from Israel a few weeks ago, and I'm trying to get back to the level I know I can compete at," Salamon said. "It usually takes a few competitions for me to really get going, and I'm still trying to adjust to everything."
Henry said he's pleased with how his team has performed so far, and he expects it to get better.
"I'm pleased with the team's performance to date," he said. "Derek's performance on the pole vault was great, and I can see that Hagit is going to be good once she gets some more jumps in."
In the running events, the Lobos earned third and fifth-place finishes.
In the women's 3,000-meter race, UNM senior Timmie Murphy took third place. Murphy threatened the top three runners throughout the race until the final laps, when she passed Faithy Kamagila from Oral Roberts University and fell behind Violet Chemakwila and Irene Kimaiyo from Texas Tech.
On the men's side, a career-best time was set by Jarrin Solomon in the 400 meters by winning his heat and placing fifth with a time of 49:02.
Henry said if the Lobos keep improving, they should be a scary team to deal with come the NCAA Championships in March.
"The team is going in the direction that I want them to by getting better every meet," Henry said. "As long as they keep showing improvements like this, we're going to be a pretty good team."
