CEDAR CITY, Utah - Feb. 2 - The men's and women's track and field teams will be split between two venues this weekend as the athletes travel to Albuquerque, N.M., for the New Mexico Classic and to Pocatello, Idaho, for the Mountain States Games.
"We're raising the runners that excelled last weekend to a higher caliber at New Mexico," head coach Eric Houle said. "The Idaho State meet will give our developing athletes an opportunity to raise their level of competition with a different venue."
The UNM group consists of distance runners and sprinters, including Shaun Murray, who earned a third-place Summit League rank in both the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash at NAU last week. Austin West and Nate Jewkes will also compete at UNM after breaking into the conference top ten in the 3,000-meters at the UW Invitational.
Diana Medina-Mitchell will lead the women in New Mexico after racing to top conference positions in the 3,000-meters and 5,000-meters at UW. Third-place miler Danielle West will also be among the competing athletes. Jasmine Paicely-Mullins will compete with the sprinters after racing to a second-place conference position in the 60-meter hurdles at the Mountain T Invitational last weekend.
The rest of the team, including jumpers Wade Nielson, Chelsea Morley-Atkinson, Zane Hunzeker and Kyle Kopp, and throwers Chris Johnson and Kayla Kovar will represent Southern Utah at Idaho State.
Distance team member Cameron Levins will not compete with either squads this weekend, but will travel to Boston, Mass., to race in the 3,000-meters at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.
The T-Birds will then return to Seattle, Wash. and Flagstaff, Ariz. for the UW Invitational on Feb. 10-11 and the NAU Invitational on Feb. 10.
