Ajia Hughes and Pamela Kosgei won individual Mountain West titles for New Mexico Track & Field on May 15 during the second day of the Mountain West Championships in Clovis, California. Twelve other athletes from New Mexico also advanced to Saturday’s finals.
After two days of competition, with eight out of twenty-one events scored for both men and women, New Mexico ranked seventh in the men’s team standings with 19 points and second in the women’s team standings with 55 points.
In Friday’s events, Hughes secured first place in the women’s long jump with a personal record leap of 6.19 meters. Kosgei won the women’s steeplechase final by more than 25 seconds ahead of her closest competitor, finishing in 9:44.25. She is set to compete again tomorrow to defend her title in the women’s 5,000 meters.
Other notable performances included Adryana Shelby advancing to the finals in the women’s 100-meter hurdles after running a personal best time of 13.19 seconds during preliminaries. In field events, Mackenzie Hurtubise finished as runner-up in pole vault with a mark of 4.23 meters while Sofia Kazanova achieved a personal best at fifth place.
On the track, four Lobo women—Li-Mari Dekker, Tilly Simpson, Natalie Bitetti, and Jasmine Wood—qualified for Saturday’s final in the women’s 1,500 meters by earning top-two finishes within their respective heats. Joshua Abraham and Collins Kiprotich each won their heats to advance to Saturday’s men’s final for that event as well.
The final day will begin with women’s triple jump at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
