Meet Week Preview
New Mexico Collegiate Classic
February 7-8, 2020
Albuquerque, N.M. - Albuquerque Convention Center
Live Stream: FloTrack ($)
The Aztec track and field team will return to Albuquerque, N.M. for the second time in three weeks for the New Mexico Collegiate Challenge this weekend (Feb. 7-8). The meet will be streamed on FloTrack, which requires a paid subscription to view.
SDSU will send 19 athletes to compete in 11 events, primarily track events. Friday's competition will begin with the high jump (Sara Absten and Jade Cany) and the long jump (Vanessa Spizewski and Dejanae Thompson) at 3 p.m. PT. The Aztecs will compete in three track events Friday evening beginning with the unseeded 400m run (Maya Brosch and Nyjari McNeil) at 4:45 p.m. PT and followed by the 600m (Sonja Andenmatten) at 5:40 p.m. PT and finished with the 200m dash where nine Aztecs will be competing.
Saturday's field events for the Aztecs include the shot put (Felicia Crenshaw) and triple jump (Lauryn Moore and Dejanae Thompson). SDSU's track events include the 60m hurdles, 60m dash, 400m dash, 800m run and concludes with the 4x400m relay.
Aztec Tidbits
- Last weekend the Aztecs were split between the Northern Arizona Mountain T's Invitational and the UW Invitational.
- Nyjari McNeil set a new indoor school record in the 800m with a time of 2:08.30 at the UW Invite. McNeil, just a sophomore, now has top three times in SDSU's indoor history in the 400m (3rd, 54.02), 600m (2nd, 1:29.93) and the 800m (1st, 2:08.30).
- Danae Dyer won the 60m hurdles and tied the second-best time in school history (8.24) at the Mountain T's Invitational.
- Jada Moore won the 60m dash and set a new SDSU record for freshman (7.49).
- On the first day of the NAU Mountain T's Invitational, the Aztecs took the top three spots in the pentathlon. Asia Smith (3,797 points), freshman Neele Schuten (3.660) and Sara Absten (3,501) all won at least one event to help the Aztecs claim first, second and third.
- At the UW Invitational, the Aztecs ran the third best distance medley relay in program history. The group of Emily Burd, Nyjari McNeil, Lauren Harper and Jessica Kain finished in 12:12.44.
- Pole vault newcomers Elizabeth Funk and Molly Scharmann, a transfer from Washington State, both cleared 12-11.50 in their second meet as an Aztec becoming the 13th and 14th SDSU vaulter to clear that height in the program's indoor history.
- This will be the Aztecs second of five competitions in Albuquerque, N.M. They will be back next weekend (Feb. 13-14) for the Don Kirby Invitational and then have the MW Indoor Championships (Feb. 27-29) and the NCAA Indoor Championships (March 13-14) there as well.
- The Aztecs have 36 underclassmen on the 2020 team and just five seniors.
- In addition to the 14 freshmen that joined the team, SDSU added five transfers giving them 19 newcomers.
- 38 of the 53 members on the team are from California.
- Last season, the Aztecs won the 4x400m relay at both the indoor and outdoor Mountain West Championships. The indoor squad set a school record and all four runners return this year. The outdoor squad returns three runners and has made the NCAAs the last two years after not making it since 2006.
- SDSU is one of the top pole vault programs in the country and have crowned 26 Mountain West Championships under assistant coach Rich Fox. Bonnie Draxler, who was the NCAA runner-up in both indoor and outdoor last season, has graduated but SDSU returns four vaulters and added Washington State transfer Molly Scharmann, who finished fourth at last year's Pac-12 Outdoor Championships.