The UNM track and field team’s venue changed hastily, but it had little effect.
The Lobos — after a long, successful indoor season — racked up eight first-place finishes and several personal records over the weekend at the Tailwind Invitational at the track and field complex.
Deanna Young, Kendall Spencer, Emma Reed and Shawna Winnegar were among the first-place finishers. Young took the women’s long jump event.
Spencer hit 7.55 meters, good for first place in the men’s long jump, in his first competition since returning from a nagging hamstring injury.
“I was actually really glad to get out there and compete again,” he said. “I’ve been kind of out of the game for a year and a half. Being able to compete finally after waiting that long is really a blessing.”
Reed was first in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 1:31.25, which was a race she never ran before.
Winnegar won the women’s 1,500-meter race in photo-finish fashion, edging the second-place finisher by 11-hundreths of a second. Winnegar stayed in the back for a large part of the race, but kicked out the last 400 meters.
“I haven’t ran a 15 in a long time,” she said. “It was good to just get a good time in and start the season off right.”
Precious Selmon took first place in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, finishing in 13.62, a personal best. Head coach Joe Franklin said Selmon’s performance was “one of the better times in our league, if not the top time in the Mountain West Conference.”
Franklin said he was pleased with the team’s effort after it struggled last week in Arizona.
“We’re trying to get as many regional qualifiers as we can to the NCAA first round,” Franklin said. “We try to get as high as we can in the Mountain West and see if we can break school records.”
