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Six New Mexico athletes will compete in four events during the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, held Wednesday through Saturday at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore.
Three Lobos — senior Josephine Moultrie, and juniors Charlotte Arter and Chloe Anderson — will compete in the 1,500 meter run, becoming UNM’s first female trio to compete in the NCAA finals in a single event.
Senior triple jumper Floyd Ross, junior distance runner Luke Caldwell and junior high jumper Django Lovett will also compete.
“We hoped for between four and eight (qualifiers),” UNM head coach Joe Franklin said Friday. “In hindsight, there may have been a couple of others who could have gotten there, but it’s a good group and a group that can go in and hopefully score some points.”
Preliminary running events are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, with the final races to follow Friday and Saturday. For the field events, each event will be concluded the day it is contested.
Only UNM’s three women have preliminaries on Thursday afternoon. The 1,500 women’s final is Saturday. Lovett will compete in the high jump Thursday, while Caldwell’s and Ross’s events are Saturday.
At the NCAA qualifying meet in Austin, Texas, Moultrie posted the fastest time among the three Lobo women with a 4:19.03, one second faster than Arter and 1.6 seconds faster than Anderson. The trio also swept the top three spots at the Mountain West outdoor championships.
Moultrie, who owns UNM’s best women’s 1,500 time at 4:14.55, said she is excited the team will send three competitors in a single event. Florida had three women in the 1,500 a year ago, while Georgetown sent three participants at that distance in 2011.
“It’s never been done before at New Mexico … so we’re excited to go to Oregon,” Moultrie said. “Training’s been going really well this week.”
Oklahoma State junior Natalja Piliusina has the nation’s best time in the women’s 1,500, clocking a 4:09.57 at the Payton Jordan Invitational on May 28, according to the Track & Field Results Reporting System.
Ross, last year’s national runner-up in the triple jump, makes his return to the NCAA finals, earning his latest NCAA bid with a 52-foot, 8-inch jump on his final attempt at the NCAA qualifying meet. He took second place at last year’s NCAA outdoor finals with a 54-6 leap, also on his last try.
Ross is the third Lobo triple jumper to make back-to-back outdoor finals, joining Dwayne Rudd in 1983-84 and Art Baxter in 1966-67.
Florida senior Omar Craddock holds the nation’s best triple jump mark this season at 54-0.
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Caldwell, a transfer student, earned his NCAA outdoor bid with a 14:12.27 mark in the 5K. He competed in last fall’s NCAA cross country finals and last spring’s NCAA indoor finals. Northern Arizona senior Diego Estrada ran the Payton Jordan Invite 5K in 13:15.33, the fastest time in the nation this season.
Lovett, meanwhile, reached the NCAA finals for the third straight time. He is the first Lobo high jumper to accomplish that feat, clearing 7-1 at the qualifying meet. Kansas State senior Erik Kynard set the nation’s best mark this year at 7-8.
Top-ranked Texas A&M and No. 2 Arkansas have emerged as potential favorites to win the team title, according to a story from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Aggies and the Razorbacks each have 20 athletes in the men’s meet.
On the women’s side, Kansas holds the coaches association’s No. 1 ranking with 13 participants in the NCAA finals. No. 2 Texas A&M, No. 3 Florida and No. 5 Oregon each have 15 entries; No. 4 LSU has 12.
