Mid-season meet lulls runners to slower finishes

The track team’s weekend was anything but classic at the New Mexico Classic.

After last weekend’s performance, which included 44 top-10 finishes in the New Mexico Invitational, the men and women only managed 27 top-15 finishers out of more than 50 events.

Head coach Joe Franklin said the team had a drop in form, compared with how well it did in the New Mexico Invitational.

“I think we just hit it so well last weekend; you can’t improve every weekend,” he said. “You are going to have moments where you have a dip and have to train to get better. I think this was one of those weekends.”

UNM placed three runners in the top 10 in the 800-meter race with sophomore mid-distance runner Gabe Aragon placing first, with a time of 1:50.96. Sophomore mid-distance runner JP Cordova and junior mid-distance runner Sam Evans placed fifth and sixth, respectively.

Freshman sprinter Beejay Lee got his second straight top-10 finish in the 60-meter dash after finishing sixth, with a time of 6.88 seconds.

Junior sprinter De’Vron Walker continued his strong start to the season, finishing fifth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.05 seconds, his fourth top-10 finish this season.

The women’s team was led by junior sprinter Shirley Pitts, who finished fifth in the 400-meter race with a time of 55.43 seconds.
Pitts said she started off the race poorly, but was able to make up for it for her fifth-place finish.

“My 400, I just came out — I didn’t get a good placing and I had to catch everyone, but I caught three people and ended up getting second in my heat,” she said.

Pitts said even though the team wasn’t as good as the week before, everyone is still improving.

“This weekend, everybody is getting a little bit better,” she said. “There are three more weeks until conference and everyone is progressing well, so for conference everyone will be at their peak.”

Next weekend, the Lobos host the Don Kirby Invitational that brings in national powerhouse teams such as UCLA, Texas, Florida and Ohio State.

Franklin said he wasn’t worried with how the team finished this weekend because they used this meet as preparation for the Don Kirby Invitational.

“There were some good performances but as a whole everyone was kind of flat, and I think we are preparing for next weekend,” Franklin said.