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Lobos Kick Off Outdoor Season In Arizona UNM joins 12-team field at 18th Annual Willie Williams Classic.
March 13, 2001
Complete Release in PDF Format
UPCOMING: The University of New Mexico track and field team opens the 2001 outdoor season at the 18th annual Willie Williams Track and Field Classic on March 16-17 in Tucson, Ariz. The meet will feature a strong field of collegiate teams including Arizona, Arizona State, Iowa, Kansas State, Lehigh, New Mexico State, Purdue, Western Michigan, South Dakota, Central Missouri State and the University of Juarez (Mexico). Collegiate events begin on 4 p.m., Friday, and Noon, Saturday. Host Arizona has one of the strongest men¹s and women¹s teams in the field. The Wildcat women tied for third at the 2001 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, while the men were 13th. Kansas State¹s men¹s and women¹s teams also placed in the NCAA Indoor Championships, with the women finishing 25th and the men 44th. Other NCAA meet teams included in the field are the Purdue men¹s team (28th) and the Arizona State women¹s squad (25th). The Lobos will return to action in Albuquerque on Saturday, March 24th for the inaugural Dick Terwilliger Classic. The meet will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Great Friends of UNM Track Stadium.
LAST TIME:
The University of New Mexico women¹s track and field team had its best
conference meet performance in 10 years, placing fourth with 57 points at
the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships in Colorado Springs,
Colo. The men¹s team improved on its sixth place performance last year,
finishing fifth with 29 points.
Junior Keren Sari got the women¹s team off to a good start with a second place finish in the pentathlon on the first day of the meet. Sari¹s total of 3,694 also broke her own school record of 3,671. She led the team in scoring at the meet with a total of 21 points. In addition to her pentathlon performance, Sari was the runner-up in the long jump and finished fourth in the triple jump. Junior Monique Harris led New Mexico¹s domination in the triple jump, capturing her first indoor title with a leap of 40-00.75. Harris, the reigning MWC outdoor triple jump champion, became the Lobos¹ first two-time conference champ since Lavern Clarke captured indoor and outdoor triple jump titles in 1991. Junior Kisha Smith scored the last of UNM¹s 16 points in the event with an eighth place finish. In other women¹s finals, Harris finished fourth in the long jump, sophomore Arline Smith was fourth in the 200 meters, senior Lisa Coleman placed fifth in the 60-meter hurdles, sophomore Dayna McMillen was seventh in the 60 meters and junior Monica Christofferson placed eighth in the 400. The women¹s distance medley team also finished seventh. The UNM men¹s team received several strong individual performances at the Mountain West Indoor Championships. Freshman Ben Ortega paced the Lobos with 11 points. After placing fourth in the 5,000 meters on the second day of the meet, Ortega capped his impressive debut by finishing third in the 3,000 meters. Senior Larry Davis also had a strong meet for New Mexico, breaking two records and finishing fifth in the 200-meter dash finals. Davis broke teammate Ian Stewart¹s 200-meter record of 21.61 with a time of 21.57 in the qualifying heat before surpassing his own mark with a time of 21.44 in the finals. In the 400 meters, sophomore Nick Lott finished fourth ahead of senior Ian Stewart, who was fifth. Stewart ran the second-fastest time in the 400-meter prelims, a blazing 48.59, but was bumped hard in the finals and finished in 51.89. In other event finals, freshman Mark Johnson placed sixth in the triple jump in just his second career meet, while the distance medley team was fifth. |
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