May 18, 2001

San Diego, Calif. - University of New Mexico freshman Ben Ortega captured the 10,000-meter run title and helped the Lobo men move into fourth place after the third day of competition on Friday at the 2001 Mountain West Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships in San Diego, Calif. The men's score of 28 is just 13 points behind third place Brigham Young. Meanwhile, the UNM women's team finished day three in seventh place with 10 points, just nine points out of fifth place.

Ortega became New Mexico's first men's outdoor champion in four years, following Jeremy Vehar's victory in the 5,000 meters at the 1997 Western Athletic Conference Championships. The Taos, N.M. native edged BYU senior John Hedengren with a MWC Championship meet record-setting time of 30:02.00, just 17 seconds off an NCAA provisional qualifying time. "Ben Ortega in the 10,000 was definitely the highlight of the day for us," said UNM head coach Matt Henry. "He ran his first 5,000 meters as fast as he's run all year, so we knew he was going to have a good race. He stayed consistent on his laps and he was just ready to run a good one when it counted."

In men's field event finals, sophomore Craig Keish and freshman Jimmy Minner combined to score 10 points in the javelin, while freshmen Mark Johnson and John David Nance combined for eight points in the long jump. Keish finished third in the javelin with a toss of 187-09.00, while Minner was fifth with a throw of 183-00.00. In the long jump, Johnson placed fourth, just 1.50 inches out of third, with a leap of 22-01.50, while Nance finished sixth with a mark of 21-07.25. On the track, the Lobos ensured themselves ample representation in Saturday's 100 and 200-meter finals with four qualifiers (Jr. Quincy Wright, Sr. Kyle Soper, Sr. Rob Caston, Nance) in the 100 and three (Sr. Larry Davis, Sr. Ian Stewart, Soper) in the 200. Davis was clocked in 20.96 in the 200 meters, which was the second-fastest preliminary time of the day and just .11 seconds off an NCAA provisional qualifying time. Other qualifiers for Saturday's men's finals included, Stewart (400m: 47.74), sophomore Nick Lott (400m: 48.78), freshman Sean Flaherty (800m: 1:55.05), junior Travis Clark (800m: 1:55.11), sophomore Joe Lopez (800m: 1:55.30), sophomore Matt Bishop (110mHH: 15.03, 400mIH: 53.50) and junior Justin Massey (400mIH: 53.19).

On the women's side, juniors Monique Harris and Keren Sari combined for eight points in what proved to be a costly long jump competition. Harris took fourth in the event with a season-best leap of 19-06.75, but Sari finished a disappointing seventh (18-06.50) after injuring her hamstring. Sari's injury will keep her from competing in Saturday's high jump and triple jump finals, both events she was expected to score well in. Junior Jackie Morgan notched the Lobos' other two points of the day with a sixth place finish in the 10,000 meters (37:04.62). In the preliminary events, sophomore Arline Smith earned the top seed in the 200-meter finals after clocking the fastest time in the Mountain West this year, a blazing 23.85. Senior Lisa Coleman squeezed into the 100-meter hurdles finals (14.36) and was one of three Lobos to qualify in the 400-meter hurdles. Junior Kisha Smith led the trio with a time of 1:01.54, followed by junior Monica Christofferson (1:01.85) and Coleman (1:02.71).

Heading into the final day of competition on Saturday at the Mountain West Championships, Henry said he's pleased with where his teams' positions. "I think we did pretty good (Friday)," he said. "Keren Sari's injury will really hurt us because she's one of our top point scorers, but overall we qualified the right people in the right events and I think we're in the position to have a good finish (Saturday)." Saturday's competition begins at 11:30 a.m. (MDT) with the hammer toss and concludes with at 5:45 p.m. with the 4x400m relay.

TEAM STANDINGS