The Lobo track and field team will continue its road schedule to Stanford, California this Friday and Saturday to compete in the Cardinal Classic.
“It’s going into a very small high-power meet at Stanford,” head coach Joe Franklin said in an interview. “There are probably 15 teams, all very good.”
Although there may not be specific expectations, the Lobos will wish to repeat their solid performances from the previous weekend in California.
Franklin said the Bryan Clay Invitational was a good meet for New Mexico across the board with many lifetime bests from the athletes.
With only one month away from the Mountain West Championships, the Lobos needed to find their positions in the conference with their participation this week.
“After this weekend at Stanford, we will get an idea about where we are,” Franklin said. “(However) we have six or seven significant injuries in our women’s team.”
The Lobo women lost a javelin thrower, a pole vaulter, some distance runners, long jumpers and sprinters.
Injuries might have led to the drop in its national rankings from No. 46 to No. 49, but the Lobo women’s team still posted sterling marks in personal rankings.
Jannell Hadnot was ranked sixth in national ranking of triple jump with her leap of 42 feet 10 1/4 inches at Bryan Clay.
Alice Wright placed at No. 10 nationally in 5000-meter run with her time of 15:53.28 last week.
On the men’s side, the squads moved from No. 102 to No. 60 in the most recent national rankings.
Much of the jump in the rankings may have been due to Josh Kerr running his way to a 1500-meter title at Bryan Clay. His time of 3:35.99 ranked sixth in all-time NCAA records, and placed first nationally in this season.
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Kerr’s time is the best 1500-meter time in the world in 2017 by nearly half a second.
Kerr was named NCAA Division I Men’s National Athlete of the Week and Men's Track Athlete of the Week on Tuesday.
Franklin said Kerr was getting better with each meet and the coaches and team would put Kerr in the best position make it into the national championships.
Another leader in the NCAA qualifying list was Samuel Trigg. He jumped 51 feet, 9 1/4 inches to place ninth nationally.
The Lobos will once again send nearly its entire roster to compete in this weekends meet, but Kerr and Wright will be saving their legs.
The head coach said he expected the men’s team to continue getting better and could end the season ranked in the top 30 if they improve their consistency.
The success in both the track and field and cross country programs gave UNM the opportunity to be selected on Tuesday to host 2020 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships and the 2020 Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Regional.
Bo Yu is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers beach volleyball, track and field, cross country and volleyball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Bo_YuB.
