After back-to-back weekends competing at the Albuquerque Convention Center the Trinidad State College track and field teams are off to a hot start in the 2022 athletic year. Both the men's and women's squads took to the turquoise and red track in Albuquerque at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invitational on January 22nd. Competing against 4-year institutions from around the country, the strong competition pushed a couple of Trojans to National qualifying marks in their first races.
Brian Rotich, two-time All-American already, raced to a 6th place finish in the men's mile where he posted the 2nd fastest time in the country to date. Conner Dosmann followed Rotich across the line in the men's mile with the Trojan's second National Qualifier of the weekend. Both performances were personal bests for the Trinidad State runners. Adrian Villareal, Jarred Baca, and Vanessa Dominguez all achieved personal best times in their first races of the indoor track season.
The Trojans returned to New Mexico again on January 29th for the New Mexico Team Open. This time Conner Dosmann led the charge in the men's mile, recording a personal best time by six seconds; which currently puts him 11th in the country in the event. Adrian Villareal won his heat of the mile in a personal best time. Villareal narrowly missed qualifying for the National Championship and will look to do so in the coming weeks. Jarred Baca followed Villareal to the finish line where he set a massive personal best time, running 4:32; which is over thirty seconds faster than his previous best time over the same distance. Vanessa Dominguez set another personal best time in the women's mile for the second weekend in a row. The women's 3,000 meters saw Ashley Lagat race to a personal best time by 4 seconds. Holly Tsosie posted a personal best in the same event, only a few seconds behind Lagat. Dominguez returned in the women's 800 meters to snag another personal best with Tamsin Stewart hot on her heels with a 6-second improvement on her performance from the week before.
Both Trojan squads will be back in action on February 10th at the Ichabod Mid-Week Challenge in Topeka, Kansas.