Jan. 26, 2008
Final Stats
UTEP's Dimitrios Fylladitakis, Nelly Tchayem, Keisha Walkes and Kelly Young each won events, highlighting UTEP's performance in its first indoor track and field meet of the season on Saturday.
Fylladitakis threw 18.72m (61-5) to finish first in the men's weight throw at the Texas Tech Invitational in Lubbock. Tchayem cleared 13.28m (43-7) in the women's triple jump to take the title. Walkes presided over the women's shot put field with an effort of 15.65m (51-4 1/4). Young was the women's 800 meter champion, crossing in a time of 2:10.22.
"We got some PRs from Dimitrios, Nina Schvedoff and Hans Eriksson in the weights," UTEP coach Bob Kitchens said. "I thought they threw pretty well. The biggest thing for us was Nelly's triple jump. The automatic qualifier for the national meet is 13.30, and she jumped 13.28. That's a huge jump. And Kelly winning the 800 is really good."
UTEP's Jepchirchir Kigen was runner-up in the women's mile (5:09.64) behind Texas Tech's Chep Boit (5:04.89). Quashanda Welch also landed second in the women's 55 meter hurdles (7.99), just off of champion Kishelle Paul's time of 7.97. Schvedoff and Walkes finished 2-3 in the women's weight throw with performances of 18.46m (60-6 3/4) and 17.54m (57-6 1/2), respectively. Texas Tech's Ozie Okolie won the event with 18.47m (60-7 1/4). Schvedoff's throw broke her own school record of 18.37 (60-3 1/4) which she set in 2006.
On the men's side, the Miners received second-place showings from Elias Koech in the 400 meters, Aggrey Chirchir in the 800 meters, Patrick Mutai in the 3,000 meters and Eriksson in the weight throw.
Koech ran the 400 in 47.58, with TCU's Che Chavez winning the event in 47.46. Chirchir posted a time of 1:51.59 in the 800 behind Tramell Smith, who ran unattached in 1:50.00. Haron Lagat, also running unattached, captured the 3,000 title in 8:13.00, followed by Mutai in 8:24.93. Eriksson threw 17.42m (57-2) in the weight throw, surpassing his previous best of 16.94 (55-7) which he achieved last season.
UTEP's Dlia Cesar was fourth in the women's mile (5:13.33) on Saturday. Laura Clarke (10:28.00) and Brissia Montalvo (10:33.40) finished fourth and fifth in the women's 3,000. Teresa Contreras landed fourth in the high jump (1.58m, 5-2 1/4). Nicodemus Ng'etich took fifth in the men's mile (4:11.71). And both Miner 4x400 meter relays garnered fourth-place finishes, with the women's unit of Halimat Ismaila, Shalaiyah Sommerville, Young and Asia Cunningham running 3:46.91. The men's relay of Anderson Mutegi, Dominic Tanui, Chirchir and Koech clocked in at 3:15.05.
While satisfied with his team's performance, Kitchens admitted the Miners are a work in progress.
`I thought we had a decent meet," Kitchens said. "You never see what you want to see in the first meet. We've got some things that we haven't done yet. It's going to take a little bit for us to put it together. But it's not about how you start, it's about how you finish up."
The Miners will next be in action at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational next weekend in Lincoln, Neb.
