LARAMIE, Wyo. – After competing at the Albuquerque Convention Center just two weeks ago, the University of Wyoming track & field team returns to the venue and its 200-meter banked track for the 2017 Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday. Conference foes will gather to battle for men’s and women’s team titles in Albuquerque, while three Pokes look to defend their individual conference titles from the 2015-16 indoor season.
Two sophomore Cowgirls are looking to repeat as conference champions after winning event titles as freshmen. Returning conference champion Emelda Malm-Annan has recently found her groove in the weight throw, tossing a season-best 62 feet, 6.75 inches at the Rocky Mountain Classic. Malm-Annan’s throw of 62-10.5 was good enough to win the 2016 MW title. Malm-Annan enters the 2017 MW indoor championships having won the weight throw at three meets this season and taking home top-three finishes in two others. Ja'la Henderson will also attempt to defend her 2016 MW title in the women’s long jump. Henderson squeaked out a win at last year’s conference championship meet, jumping 19-4.75 to triumph over San José State’s Cambree Harbaugh by half an inch. Henderson enters the weekend trailing UNLV senior Ayana Gales by 2.5 inches in the event, having jumped a new personal best 20-0.5 at the Colorado Open while Gales leapt 20-3 at the Husker Invitational. Wyoming sophomore Jerayah Davis is tied for third in the conference with a mark of 19-8.75 and will also look to make a run at the event title.
Davis enters the weekend tops in the league for the women’s 60-meter dash for her time of 7.29, converted from her nation-leading 55-meter dash time of 6.73 at Wyoming’s Power Meet in December 2016. Only four female athletes have posted times in the event below 7.45 this season - UNLV’s Destiny Smith-Barnett and San Diego State duo Micha Auzenne and Ashley Henderson. Davis will attempt to avenge her loss from last season’s conference championship meet, when Auzenne clocked a time of 7.33 to beat Davis by .04 seconds.
On the men’s side, senior Scott Carter is looking to defend his own conference title in the triple jump. In 2016, Carter won the event title with a personal best mark of 51-8.5, beating New Mexico’s Allan Hamilton by nearly a foot. Carter enters his final indoor conference championship meet with a comfortable lead in the event. Carter’s mark of 51-3 is tops in the league by well over two feet, with Colorado State’s Collin Scheer checking in behind him at 48-7.5. Carter will also compete in the long jump in Albuquerque and is looking for yet another all-conference performance after taking third place in the event last season at 23-10.75.
Fellow senior Jordan Charles will make an attempt at a second conference title in the 60-meter hurdles after falling just short in 2016. Charles won the MW title in 2015 with a time of 7.90, but his time of 7.89 in 2016 was not enough to beat Air Force’s Jamiel Trimble, who enters the 2017 MW indoor championships as the top-ranked athlete in the event. Trimble’s altitude-adjusted time of 7.88 leads the conference, while Charles’ 7.91 (converted from the 55-meter hurdles and adjusted for altitude) is second. Carter is ranked sixth in the event heading into the conference meet with a seed time of 8.08 (also converted from the 55-meter hurdles and adjusted for altitude).
Additional Pokes ranked in the top five in the Mountain West for their events are Bryce Ailshie (fourth in men’s 800 meters), Cassidy Meade (fourth in women’s 800 meters), Lauren Hamilton (fifth in women’s mile), Garrett Lynch (fifth in men’s shot put) and Kirk Unland (third in men’s weight throw). Last season, the Cowboys took fifth place, racking up 70 team points, while the Cowgirls were also fifth on the women’s side with 59 team points.
The 2017 Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships begin on Thursday at 11 a.m. MT with the women’s pentathlon, while the men’s heptathlon will begin soon after. The gun will sound for the men’s distance medley relay at 4 p.m. Thursday, while the women’s DMR is scheduled for 4:20. Field events begin at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, while the first track event is slated for 1:30. On Saturday, the final group of field events will begin at 10 a.m. while track events will begin at noon. The final track event of the meet, the women’s 4x400-meter relay, is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. on Saturday. Fans can stream the action or follow live results at the links above or follow along on Twitter at
@wyo_track.
