ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. ---Â The New Mexico Highlands University distance runners took advantage of cool temps and light winds to come away with three wins and four personal bests at the Don Kirby Tailwind Open hosted by the University of New Mexico on Thursday.
Cowboy Andrew Amor opened the morning session with a 14:49 (altitude adjusted 14:22) win in the 5k to follow up his 10k win at the Beach Invite just six days ago.Â
Not to be outdone, Cowgirl freshman
Jewels Leslie raced to a new collegiate best (19:06) to take the women's 5k in the meets' next event. It was Leslie's first college win and a six-second improvement on her previous record.
Racing in the Invitational sections of the 1,500, both
Faith Lovato and Nathias Real came up with new personal bests as well. Lovato improved her time to 4:45.9 to move to second on the HU all-time performance list. Running just his second college 1,500, Rael chopped nearly seven seconds off his previous best to take third in the Invitational section in an altitude adjusted 4:05.4.
Rael came back later in the meet to win the open 800 meters in 1:58.8.
The Cowgirls got another personal best from
Faith Jebet in the 400 (60.77). Jebet has improved her time in four consecutive meets.
The Cowgirls travel to Spearfish, South Dakota, next week for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships April 29-May 1.
