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New Mexico head track and field coach Joe Franklin said his first priority for this weekend’s Mountain West Conference indoor championships is making sure the team arrives in Idaho intact.
“When you have kids on three different flights going out, it’s (about) making sure everyone gets there safely and healthy,” he said Tuesday morning.
From there, Franklin said it’s a matter of giving the other conference teams “a run for their money.”
Boise State hosts this year’s conference championships Thursday through Saturday at the Jacksons Indoor Track Facility. Six of the MWC’s nine schools — Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, UNM and Wyoming — have men’s indoor track programs.
All nine member schools compete on the women’s side.
Both UNM teams have finished as high as second at the MWC indoor meet. Most recently, the Lobo men were runners-up in 2009, and the women placed that high last year.
Neither team has won any conference title in quite a while. The men last won a conference outdoor title in 1967 and the women in 1985, when UNM was a member of the Western Athletic Conference. That conference crown is something UNM is striving for, said junior sprinter/jumper Kendall Spencer.
“To be able to do that, to be the team to break that streak is, I think, a lot of pride in itself,” he said.
Air Force and Boise State are expected to be among the top teams on the men’s side, Spencer said, so “the focus is ‘destroy everything in blue.’” Franklin added that Colorado State should be in the running, and San Diego State and Fresno State have a number of strong athletes as well.
Franklin said he expects UNM to be competitive in nearly every event. All the nagging injuries that athletes have endured throughout the season are healed, he said, and the flu-like symptoms the team faced a month ago have run their course.
“We have bodies everywhere on the men’s side,” he said. “On the women’s side we’re a little more thin, but we’ll still score well.
We may not challenge San Diego State, but I think we can get to the upper third, upper quarter of the conference.”
There will be a few surprises UNM brings to the meet. Some UNM athletes may compete in distances or events to which they are not normally accustomed.
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Jumper Zach Smith is an example. The junior long jumper said he will also compete in the triple jump, an event he hasn’t participated in since he had knee surgery as a freshman. He won’t be doing a full approach or run at full speed, he said, but he’s looking to contribute points to the team total.
“I haven’t practiced it at all in three years, but I’ve jumped since I was 3 years old,” Smith said. “It should be somewhat like riding a bike. I’ll just go out there and do it.”
Scoring points and striving for that team championship is what this meet is all about, Spencer said.
“Practices are more cohesive with other event specialists; we have distance runners out here now practicing at the same time,” he said. “That’s just great energy right now. I love practicing with those guys. Everyone is fired up.”
