Jan. 31, 2015
RESULTS
Albuquerque, N.M. – The UTEP track and field team competed in the lovely confines of the Albuquerque Convention Center for the second time this year on Saturday.
“I thought it was a good meet for us. We got an unbelievable amount of personal bests today, and that’s what I kind of expected,“ said head coach Mika Laaksonen. “It was a good test for us and I think it was an eye-opener for most of our student athletes. We had three PAC-12 teams, two Big 12 and one SEC school to compete against. So, now everybody (athletes) knows where they are at.”
The story of the day was Anthony Rotich. The defending indoor mile national champion took gold in the mile with an altitude-converted time of 3:57.47. It is the second-fastest time recorded in the nation this year, and ranks first in Conference USA. Rotich was less than two seconds off of Wilson Waigwa’s school record. Sophomore Cosmas Boit also nearly went below the four-minute mark with an altitude-converted time of 4:02.78; he finished fourth.
On the women’s side, the Miners had a great showing in the 60m hurdles. Greta Kerekes (8.36) and Bria Love (8.61) both set personal bests at the New Mexico Collegiate Invitational. Kerekes (fourth), Anna-Kay James (fifth) and Bria Love (eighth) all made it to the finals. Kerekes and James are the two fastest 60m hurdlers in C-USA.
The duo of Ada Benjamin and Aiyanna Stiverne finished second and third respectively in the women’s 400m dash. Benjamin clocked a time of 54.30 in her first 400m dash in a Miner uniform. Stiverne checked in at 54.76 to claim the second-fastest 400m time in C-USA. UTEP stakes claim to the top-three 400m dash times in C-USA (Benjamin, Stiverne and Uwakwe).
In the men’s 400m dash, the Miners placed two runners in the top eight. Abiola Onakoya tore the track up with a time of 47.52 to finish third; that mark ranks third in C-USA this year. A-Shawni Mitchell wasn’t too far off of Onakoya’s pace with a time of 48.20 to notch a seventh-place finish.
Brandon Moss picked up a sixth-place finish in the long jump with a distance of 7.22m (23-8.25) which ranks fourth in C-USA. Senior Monica Lopez notched the longest jump of the meet for the women with a distance of 5.47m (17-11.5), and in the mean time recorded a personal best. Senior Nickevea Wilson picked up a second-place finish in the triple jump with a leap of 12.63m (41-5.25).
Florence Uwakwe set a new personal best on her way to winning the women’s 200m dash with a time of 23.83. That mark ranks first in C-USA and top 15 in the country.
Lilian Koech ran to a third-place finish in the 3,000m run clocking a mark of 9:45.03, while Joan Jepkirui finished in fifth with a time of 9:50.83.
The men’s 4x400m relay team that consisted of A-Shawni Mitchell, Carnell Horn, Roberto Camacho and Abiola Onakoya took silver with a time of 3:10.93 which is the second fastest 4x4 time in the conference. The women’s 4x4 team (Aiyanna Stiverne, Florence Uwakwe, Imani Idams and Ada Benjamin) placed third with a time of 3:40.43; that time ranks first in C-USA.
The women’s team placed sixth with 64 points, and the men’s team placed 10th with 37 points.
Final results can be found at liverunningresults.com.
