Junior Keren Sari-Bentzur and sophomore Ben Ortega of the men's and women's track and field teams are the New Mexico Daily Lobo Athletes of the Week.
A season-best long jump mark of 20-feet, 2.25-inches propelled Sari-Bentzur to an NCAA provisional qualifying score of 5,371 on Friday, the final day of the heptathlon competition at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays. Sari-Bentzur finished the multi-event competition in fifth place overall and second among collegiate competitors.
During the two-day competition, Sari-Bentzur recorded season-bests in all seven events, shattering her previous personal-best of 5,128 in 2001 by 243 points.
In his first 10,000-meter race of the year, Ortega tore up the track with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 29 minutes, 35 seconds to finish fourth in his heat. Ortega, the defending Mountain West Conference champion in the event, finished 10 seconds under the NCAA minimum qualifying time and improved on his personal-best time by 27 seconds.
