Two UNM track and field athletes broke school records at the Air Force Academy Invitational last weekend in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Junior Keren Sari, a transfer student from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, set a new UNM record in the pentathlon by scoring 3,671 points. The old mark of 3,442 points was set in 1990 by Heidi Anderson.
The women’s collegiate pentathlon is comprised of five events, the 800-meter dash, high jump, long jump, 60-meter hurdles and the shot-put.
“She did it by improving a little bit in each event,” UNM assistant coach Katarina Zuber said of Sari’s performance. Sari finished second overall in the pentathlon to Jennifer Hoppe, an unattached athlete, who finished with 3,753 points.
Sari attributes her success to hard work and the help of her training partner, junior high jumper Katherine Callahan, who added pentathlon to her routine this year.
“The pentathletes are the first to arrive at practice and the last to leave,” Sari said.
Sari completed her weekend by winning the long jump with a leap of 18 feet 11.25 inches. She hopes to get to the NCAA nationals in the long jump. Sari won the long jump at the 2000 Israeli Track and Field Championships and has a personal best of 20-feet, 3-inches jump.
On the men’s side, senior Ian Stewart set a new school record in the 200-meter dash. Stewart’s heat run of 21.61 seconds beat the UNM record of 21.91 seconds set by Carl King in 1996. Stewart finished eighth in the finals with a time 21.92 seconds.
Lobo assistant coach Mark Henry said he believes Stewart has a great shot at qualifying for the NCAA nationals in the 200-meters. Stewart predicted that he’d beat another UNM record.
“The 400 meters record is going down too,” he said.
Henry also pointed to senior Larry Davis, a sprinter, as someone to look out for as the season progresses. Davis competes in the 60-meters and the 200-meters and qualified
for the finals in both events last weekend by finishing second in his heats. Davis said his goals for the season are to finish in the top ten in the Mountain West Conference in both events.
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Davis was a wide receiver for the Lobo football team last fall. Cornerback Walter Bernard and wide receiver Rob Caston, both seniors, also came to the team after the football season ended.
The men’s team finished eighth overall and the women’s team finished fifth at Air Force. The Invitational was the first of four indoor meets preparing UNM for the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships, Feb. 22-24, at the Air Force Academy.
This week the Lobos travel to Norman, Okla., to compete in the J.D. Martin Invitational at the University of Oklahoma.
