Albuquerque, New Mexico - New Mexico Highlands women's track and field continued its indoor campaign this weekend at the New Mexico Team Open, where the distance crew led the way with a series of personal-best performances.
Competing at the Albuquerque Convention Center, every Cowgirl distance athlete on the entries list recorded a new collegiate personal best. The Distance Medley Relay (DMR) team of
Summer Abeyta,
Lucia Burba,
Hailey Renteria, and
Taylor Begay highlighted the collective effort, dropping their time to an altitude-adjusted 12:55.0. The mark represents a 17-second improvement from their season opener in December.
Distance Highlights
Mile:Â
Summer Abeyta clocked a converted 5:18.8, finishing just a half-second shy of the NMHU indoor school record.
Taylor Begay followed with a personal best of 5:33.0.
800m:Â
Hailey Renteria won her heat, posting an adjusted time of 2:26.8.
3000m:
Jewels Leslie posted a 10:56.0, marking a new collegiate best for the distance.
Improvement Across the Board
In the field,
Allyssa Casaus reached a season-best mark in the Long Jump with a leap of 16-5 1/4 (5.01m).
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The Cowgirl's progress continued in the sprints, as
July Lafferty (400m) improved her season best to 1:02.0, and Aaliyah Maria (400m) lowered her season mark to 1:08.4. Burba also lowered her season best in the 60H with a 9.84 clocking.
"It was a productive weekend across the board," said head coach
Bob DeVries. "The goal at these large UNM meets is to use the elite competition to sharpen our own performances, and our distance group did exactly that. Every one of them leaving with a personal best - and a 17-second improvement from the DMR - Return shows we are finding our rhythm at the right time. We have two weeks now to fine-tune things before we come back for Don Kirby."
The squad will now enter a two-week training block before returning to Albuquerque for the Don Kirby Elite meet on February 13-14.
