UTEP Track: Miners Set to Open 2016 Indoor Season at Lumberjack Team Challenge

El Paso, Texas – The UTEP track and field team will kickoff the 2016 indoor campaign this Saturday at the Lumberjack Team Challenge in Flagstaff, Ariz., on the campus of Northern Arizona University.

35 athletes (20 women and 15 men) will make the trip for the Orange and Blue. This will be the first of five indoor meets before UTEP heads to Birmingham, Ala. (Feb 24-25) for the conference championships.

2015 was a historic year for the women’s team, as it captured its first conference title in program history. The women’s team returns seven veteran point scorers from that team along with some talented newcomers.

Nickevea Wilson, the only indoor All American on the team, will start her final indoor season off in the triple jump. At last year’s conference meet, Wilson secured silver with a bound of 12.64m (41-5.75).

The duo of Ada Benjamin and Florence Uwakwe is one of the most lethal sprinter one-two punches in Conference USA. Benjamin (12 points) and Uwakwe (9 points) racked up 21 points for the Miners at last year’s conference meet. The duo will be running in the 400m dash at 11:35 a.m. (MT) alongside four other Miners (Brittney Adams, Imani Adams, Veronica Alvarez and Dreshanae Rolle).

Tyler Ragin and Israel Ramsay will both be pulling double duty by competing in the 60m dash (10:55 a.m.) and the long jump (9 a.m.). Yanique Bennett and Brittney Trought will make their debut for the Orange and Blue in the 200m dash (12:55 p.m.) alongside sophomore Alexis Roberts.

UTEP will send three throwers to Flagstaff: Samantha Hall will compete in the shot put and Adebola Akomolafe and Fayon Gonzales will participate in the weighted throw.

The triumvirate of Lilian Koech (800m run), Truphena Sum (mile) and Gladys Jerotich (3,000m/indoor debut) will hold down the distance events. Koech racked up 12 points at the Conference USA Championships last year as a freshman.

Rounding out the athletes for the women will be Bria Love and Lucia Mokrasova, both whom will be running the 60m hurdles. Mokrasova, a pentathlete, will also be competing in the long jump.

The men will have five scorers from last year’s third-place finishing conference team in action this weekend.

The duo of senior Daniel Tarango (fifth) and sophomore Esteban Montanez (sixth), both who scored at the 2015 Indoor Conference USA Championships in the 800m run, will compete in that event at 11:25 a.m.

Daniel Cheruiyot, Evans Kiprono and Antony Kosgei will be running the 3,000m run at 1:30 p.m. and freshman Jonah Koech will run the men’s mile 10:45 a.m.

The fivesome of Asa Guevara (debut), Carnell Horn, Carvellion Horn (debut), Tommy McCoy and Yinka Oyebanjo-Odofin will all compete in the 400m dash at 11:45 a.m.

Nicholas Colbert and Isak Washington will hold down the short sprints with the 60m dash at 11:05 a.m. and Sven Zellner will run the 60m hurdles at 12:05 p.m. Kevin Rincon will be the only thrower in action for the men; he will compete in the weighted throw.

Live results will be posted at http://live.wingfootfinish.com/. For additional live updates of the meet, follow @UTEPTrack on Twitter.