The UTEP track and field team will be at home for their first outdoor competition of the year when they host the UTEP Springtime meet on March 21, at Kidd Field.
After a pretty successful indoor season, in which the women won the Conference USA Championship and the men finished third, the Miners will look to get off to a fast start of the season.
“We have a good team right now, and this is a good time for me to see how everyone is participating,” said head coach Mika Laaksonen.
This will be the first of three meets the Miners will host this season. Laaksonen and his squad are looking forward to performing in front of a home crowd.
“It’s good that the meet is at home,” Laaksonen said. “For the athletes to have people cheering makes them feel better, and it is a way that they can win.”
As it’s been for the past couple of years, one of the main attractions when it comes to UTEP track and field are its distance runners. Senior Anthony Rotich and sophomore Cosmas Boit have set the pace for the men’s team all throughout this year.
After running three separate events in one day at the conference championships, Rotich finished his indoor career at UTEP with a third place medal at the National Championships in the mile run. He was named an All-American for the ninth time in his illustrious career.
“Anthony insisted on running three distance events in a one-day meet at the Conference USA Championships,” Laaksonen said. “It was very telling of what kind of person he is by going for an impossible triple like that just to give the team a chance. Rarely do you see that kind of unselfishness from a great athlete.”
Although distance seems to be the Miners’ specialty on the men’s side, UTEP has talent all throughout their roster and in many different events. Senior sprinter Abiola Onakoya runs the 200-meter and 400-meter events and he will try to start the outdoor season as well as his team ended the indoor season.
“I feel ready and am motivated to run at my best,” Onakoya said. “It is always good to run at home, and hopefully we can have many fans cheer us.”
Onakoya finished fifth in the 400-meter dash at the Conference USA Indoor Championships with a time of 48.40.
Although this can be seen as somewhat of a warm up for the season, the team will want to keep the momentum going from the success achieved in conference and at the national level.
“It is good for our athletes to compete at home, they can have other fans here, and the rest is better when they don’t have to leave the campus, Laeksonen said. “If they can stay healthy and compete, they can do good.”
The women are having a historic year with winning the program’s first conference championship.
This event can be a nice warm up, which they hope will lead to more success at the end of the season. .
The women may not have a lot of time to celebrate that championship as the outdoor season will start as fast as the last season ended. The women had one week to prepare and attempt to defend their title.
Among the leaders for the women’s team is senior hurdler Greta Kerekes. She ran the indoor 60-meter hurdles, but will be running the 100-meter hurdles during the outdoor season. Kerekes helped to propel UTEP to that historic championship by winning her event at the conference meet.
“I could not believe that I had won. I had to look around to make sure I crossed first,” Kerekes said. “I expected to end the race in maybe third, but when I crossed first, I was so excited.”
This will be the first of four meets UTEP will host this outdoor season, the fourth and final one being the Conference USA Outdoor Championships in mid-May. With the little time between the end of the indoor season and the start of the outdoor one, running at home is something the Miners are looking forward to. Performing in front of their crowd, looking to keep the momentum going as they begin what both women and men hope will be another dominating season.
Juan Carlos Navarrete can be reached at [email protected].
