Abinuwa, Kimaiyo highlight Cherry and Silver

The Miners capped off their second indoor meet led by their senior duo of sprinter Endurance Abinuwa and long distance runner Risper Kimaiyo. The two took first in their respective events Jan. 20-21 at the Cherry and Silver Invitational in Albuquerque.

Abinuwa clocked in at 7.44 seconds in the 60-meter dash and lead the 4x400 meter relay team to a second place finish along with sophomore Janice Jackson, senior Kitra Stewart and junior Yolanda Suggs.

"I felt like we made progress this week. Endurance ran solid races to win the 200m and 60m. Her 200m time should put her in the top 10 nationally," assistant coach Scott Roberts said. "Our 4x400-meter relay improved by over three seconds from last week with the addition of Kitria Stewart. That being said, we still have work to do."

Jackson, a transfer from Clemson, also took silver in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.46. The All-American Kimaiyo earned her second top-five finish this season with a time of 9:47.09 in the 3,000-meter run.

For the men's team, junior Elkana Rotich earned silver in both the mile and 3,000-meter run.

"Both Risper and Elkana performed really well this weekend. Risper winning the 3000-meter at (that) altitude was a commendable effort, especially when we consider that she led the race from the beginning," assistant coach Paul Ereng said. "The same goes for Elkana finishing second in two events."

Ereng said that Rotich's time of 4:13 in the mile run was a 12 second improvement from his time at the same event he ran last year."

The men's 4x400-meter relay team of seniors Suji Adeniyan, A-Shawni Mitchell, Shane Hamm and Curtis Kock earned first with a season-best time of 3:16.31.

Senior and El Pasoan Matt Dudley regressed in his performance this time around, finishing fifth in the shot put after earning first place in his first meet. Dudley's best throw in Albuquerque was 16.37-meters, which was also short of his 16.95-meter mark during his first meet Jan. 14 in Boise, Idaho.

Heading into the meet, Dudley hoped to continue and improve, create consistency in his performance and try not to peak too early into the season.

"I'm just trying to get consistent. You want to keep a steady pace so if you do 56 (feet) the first meet then let's get something around the same range if not ever further," Dudley said. "We try and keep our goals steadily going forward. The first meet we were just really working technique, the second is the same."

Daniel Ornelas may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.