Fresno State Athletics
Indoor Track and Field Off to MW Championships
2/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
By: Andrew Rich
arich1221@mail.fresnostate.edu
GoBulldogs.com
FRESNO, Calif. -- Fresno State's women's indoor track and field team heads to Albuquerque, New Mexico this weekend for the 2015 Mountain West Conference Championships, beginning tomorrow at the Albuquerque Convention Center. The Bulldogs finished seventh at the 2014 indoor conference championships.
"We want to try improve our position from last year," Bulldogs head coach Scott Winsor said.
Senior Je'Nia Sears enters the event looking like Fresno State's best bet for an individual conference championship. The 2013 Indoor Long Jump Champion and 2014 Runner-Up is coming off a ninth place showing at this summer's NCAA Outdoor Championships. Sears has a season-best jump of 20 feet, 4.25 inches (6.20 meters) and is second in the Mountain West, behind New Mexico's Aasha Marler jump of 20'-5.25" (6.23m).
"She has some technical things she needs to take care of, but they are easy fixes," Windsor said. "If she takes care of those things, then she can win."
The Bulldogs' 4x400 Relay team enters the conference championships in the No. 2 spot as well. The team of Dezirae Johnson, Kimberley Efonye, Kyra Johnson and Njeri Omawahleh have a season-best time of 3:43.08 and trail UNLV by just .63 seconds.
"We can't be afraid to run in the front of the pack this weekend," Winsor said. "We have a very good chance to win it with the girls we have, but we can't be afraid to run out front because on a tight, indoor track passing can be difficult."
Shakira Lewis enters the meet in a four-way tie for seventh in the conference in the 60-meter dash. She has a season-best of 7.61 seconds and trails the conference leader, Destiny Smith-Barnett, by .18 seconds.
Freshman Tiffany Gilmore is ninth in the weight throw entering this weekend's meet. She is the top freshman in the conference with a season-best throw of 58 feet, 4 inches (17.78 meters).
The Championships get underway tomorrow when the Bulldogs' Ashley Hatcher will compete in the Pentathlon beginning at 10:10 a.m., PT. Friday and Saturday's track events will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network and can be viewed at http://www.themw.com/#!/watch-live.
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