REBELS GEAR UP FOR MOUNTAIN WEST INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
IG: @unlvtrackandcc | X: @UNLVTrackCC | Meet Schedule | Championship Central
After a successful five indoor meets through the last couple months, the UNLV track & field team set off for their first championships meet of the 2023-24 track & field season. The Rebels’ competition this weekend will be the 2024 Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships, taking place in familiar territory and hosted by the New Mexico Lobos. The meet is scheduled to kick off on the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 22 and run through Saturday, Feb. 24.
The Scarlet & Gray spent time at the facility earlier in the season, having competed in the New Mexico Collegiate Classic at the beginning of the month. The Rebels set a slew of personal records at the two-day meet, including junior Natalia Ruiz tearing down a 25-year-old UNLV mark in the women’s mile on a 4:52.58 final time. The team set 11 other personal records in the meet, earning top-three finishes in four different events over the course of the weekend.
The Rebels hold several members with top-eight slots in their respective events over the course of the season, Kennedi Porter holding the fastest 200m time in the Mountain West after her 23.51 time in the Jarvis Scott Open. Porter is also within the top-three competitors in the 60m, slotted as the runner-up from her 7.40 time in the same meet previously mentioned.
UNLV’s high jumpers hold the charge for the program’s field events, Grace Cunningham and Erin Thompson both inside the meet’s top-eight competitors in the Mountain West. Cunningham will battle for a top-three spot with a current seed tied at third, posting a 1.71m height (5-7.25) in the New Mexico Collegiate Classic. Tied at sixth is Erin Thompson, the junior holding a performance height of 1.67m (5-5.75) from the Jarvis Scott Open.
Natalia Ruiz enters the meet with a pair of top-10 slots in the conference, her high-point being the 3000m at third place. That time stems from the season-opening meet back in December of last year at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener. Her other event is in the women’s mile, her aforementioned time in the New Mexico Collegiate Classic slotting her at 10th overall in the conference.
Jaydea Carter holds a pair of top-eight performances of her own heading into the conference championships, the first-year Rebel sitting fourth overall in the 60m hurdles. The 8.44 time she set came from the regular-season finale, just .03 seconds shy of a top-three seeding in the meet. Carter also is alongside Porter in the 200m, tied at the eighth-place spot on a time of 24.29 from the New Mexico Collegiate Classic.
The Scarlet & Gray’s final top-eight time sits in the 4x400m relay, the team’s performance in the Jarvis Scott Open placing them seventh in the conference. The team of Endya Scott, Chinyere Okoro, Kaelin Gowdy and Porter teamed up for a final time of 3:46.66 overall.
The conference championships are set to kick off at 3 p.m. PT on Thursday, Feb. 22, the women’s 5000m starting the running events. A full schedule of events can be found here, as well as results from the meet being posted on UNLVrebels.com. For live updates on the Scarlet & Gray, check out their X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram social media accounts
