Meet Week Preview
MLK Collegiate Invitational
January 24-25
Albuquerque, N.M. | Albuquerque Convention Center
Aztecs Kick Off Indoor Season in Albuquerque
The San Diego State track and field team officially begins the 2020 indoor season this weekend at the MLK Collegiate Invitational at the Albuquerque (N.M.) Convention Center. This will be the first of five indoor meets at the ABQ Convention Center this season, including the Mountain West Indoor Championships and the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The Aztecs will have 24 athletes competing across 12 events and 17 of them will be competing in two or more events. Competition begins Friday afternoon with the weight throw and long jump, both of which begin at 3 p.m. PT. Felicia Crenshaw will be in the weight throw and freshman Neele Schuten, Asia Smith, Vanessa Spizewski and Dejanae Thompson will be in the long jump. On the track, the first race is the unseeded 400m dash at 4:25 a.m. PT followed by the 600m (6 p.m. PT) and 200m (6:45 p.m. PT).
Saturday's competition starts at 8:30 a.m. PT with the shot put. The first track event is the 60m hurdles at 9 a.m. PT. The Aztecs will have five athletes competing in the pole vault and Dejanae Thompson will compete in the triple jump at 10 a.m. PT. SDSU's Saturday track events include the 60m dash (9:50 a.m. PT), the seeded 400m (12:50 p.m. PT), the 800m (1:45 p.m. PT) and the 4x400m relay at 2:15 p.m. PT where the Aztecs will have four teams competing.
Aztec Tidbits
- The Aztecs have 37 underclassmen on the 2020 team and just five seniors.
- In addition to the 14 freshmen that joined the team, SDSU added five transfers giving them 19 newcomers.
- Nyjari McNeil will look to build on her standout freshman campaign. Last season, she set freshmen records in the 400 indoor (54.02), 600 indoor (1:29.93), 800 indoor (2:10.02) and 800 outdoor (2:05.27) while also helping SDSU finish 11th in the 4x400m relay at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
- Last season, the Aztecs won the 4x400m relay at both the indoor and outdoor Mountain West Championships. The indoor squad set a school record and all four runners return this year. The outdoor squad returns three runners and has made the NCAAs the last two years after not making it since 2006.
- SDSU is one of the top pole vault programs in the country and have crowned 26 Mountain West Championships under assistant coach Rich Fox. Bonnie Draxler, who was the NCAA runner-up in both indoor and outdoor last season, has graduated but SDSU returns four vaulters and added Washington State transfer Molly Scharmann, who finished fourth at last year's Pac-12 Outdoor Championships.
- SDSU has had a representative at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 22 of the past 23 years.
Aztecs Kick off Indoor Season at MLK Invitational
