UTEP approached their first event of the indoor season with the intent of a tune up when they traveled Jan.14 to Boise, Idaho for the Blue and Orange opener.
The Miners finished with 19 top-five performers in the event. Other schools competing in the event were Boise State, Oregon, BYU, Nevada Northwest Nazarene and Lewis & Clark.
Heading into the meet, head coach Mika Laaksonen was looking for his returning athletes to set the tone for the rest of the team.
"We have some returning. In the women's side, we still have (senior sprinter) Endurance Abinuwa coming back, (senior distance runner) Risper Kimaiyo so I expect in the women's side for them to lead the team," Laaksonen said. "In the men's side, we have some seniors that have gone to nationals in the past, but we're expecting much bigger and better things from them this year. Hopefully they can step up."
Abinuwa placed second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.35 seconds and junior Yolanda Suggs was third, clocking in at 7.56. Abinuwa and Suggs were also part of the 4x400m relay team alongside sophomore Janice Jackson and freshman Jallycia Pearson to finish third with a time of 3:52.99. Jackson also took bronze in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.66 seconds.
For the men, sophomore Andres Estrada and junior Donovant Grant finished third and fourth, respectively, in the long jump event.
Assistant Head Coach Paul Ereng (and head coach for cross-country) was expecting Kimaiyo to be ready to go after the Blue and Orange opener after another All-American year in cross-country. Going into the event, Kimaiyo was only competing in the one-mile event.
"She's been training well. She's been healthy since we came back from cross-country. The event that she's running is not a main event, she's only running a mile this time, but I think from next week on, once we start running the right events like the 3000 and the 5000 meters," Ereng said. "I expect this event to be short and consistent and then she's ready to go."
Risper finished fifth in the mile run, clocking in at 4:56.55 while the other top finisher was junior Karina Garcia, finishing third in the 3000m at 10:17.86.
Prior to the event, Kimaiyo said that the expectations weren't much because it was simply an event to gage where the team is.
"My overall expectations is to do good and get a good time to qualify for nationals," Risper said.
Ereng said that freshman Ramon Garcia, junior Elkana Rotich and senior Justice Chirchir are distance runners to keep an eye on and expects them to be in peak performance by the time the Conference-USA indoor championships come around Feb. 25-26 in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Miners are hoping to get help from many new comers to the team, as well.
El Pasoan and senior thrower Matt Dudley earned first place for the men's team in the shot put with a distance of 16.95 meters.
According to Laaksonen, the roster of about 47 athletes will have 19 freshman, as well as 20 new athletes with some being juniors or four-year college transfers.
The Miners are preparing to compete again Jan. 20-21 in the Cherry and Silver Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"It's tough to say what we really have, we usually don't have that much turnover. That's why first we're going with a humble attitude and see what we got," Laaksonen said. "We have very dedicated athletes, with good chemistry and they work hard. Until they compete for us we won't know exactly know what we have. We have to go out there and get a feel for the team. That's the main idea."
Daniel Ornelas may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.
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