The New Mexico track and field team, although short-handed, put together another impressive performance Saturday at the Brutus Hamilton Challenge in Berkeley, California.
Head coach Joe Franklin said the team had an outstanding performance at the previous meet, but couldn't sustain it in California.
“It was a little bit down from last week, but there were some very good performances,” he said.
Frank said the team rested quite a few athletes, including jumpers Jannell Hadnot, Aasha Marler and Allan Hamilton. Hamilton didn't even make the trip, nor did the distance runners.
Still, New Mexico logged a bevy of top 10 performances and finished in the top five in nine events.
Yannick Roggatz, coming off an illness, landed in second place in the men’s long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 7 1/2 inches.
In the men’s high jump, Markus Miller cleared a height of 6 feet, 8 inches to log a third place finish.
Katherine Whiting rounded out the field athletes with top five finishes. She came in fifth by matching a personal best of 12 feet, 5 1/2 inches in the women’s pole vault.
New Mexico also performed well on the track. Aasha Marler ran 12.03 in the women’s 100-meter dash for a third place finish, while Holly Van Grinsven also placed third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.02.
The women’s 400 meter relay team has been running consistent times lately, and ran a solid 46.46 time to earn a third place finish.
On the men’s side, Carlos Salcido came in fifth place after running the men’s 200-meter dash in 21.63.
Cheyne Dorsey also garnered a fifth place finish. He ran the men’s 400-meter hurdles in 54.87.
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In the men’s 400-meter Dash, Mark Haywood logged a second place finish with a time of 48.64. Teammate Isaac Gonzales finished just behind at 49.03.
Despite the abbreviated roster, New Mexico finished in fifth in the scoring on the women’s side with 45 points, while California earned the top honors with 168 points.
On the men’s side, New Mexico edged out UTEP for second place, tallying 83 points. California racked up an impressive 242.5 points on its way to a first place finish.
The women’s team dropped in Monday’s U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association rankings, but still sit at number 22. The men are outside of the top 25, but both squads could be poised to make a move.
Franklin said as more athletes start competing in their primary events next week, he expects those rankings to improve.
Defending conference champion Javelin thrower Beau Clafton has not competed in his event yet, something not expected to change this week even though he is healthy.
“We’re just being careful with his elbow,” Franklin said. “He won’t throw for the first time until the conference championship.”
Franklin said the focus next week will be on making sure the athletes are preparing themselves to compete. He said it is almost the start of the championship season and they need to be ready to go.
The team will split up this weekend as the jumpers and distance runners are expected to compete in California at the Payton Jordan Invitational on Sunday, while the sprinters and remaining field athletes will be in action Saturday at the UTEP Invitational.
Robert Maler is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers cross country, tennis, and track and field. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
