ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico men’s and women’s track & field teams continued to set records in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Team Computer Rankings released Sunday.
With the NCAA Indoor Championships coming up later this week, the Lobo women remained ranked a program-best eighth in the NCAA, while the UNM men climbed two spots to set a program record with a ranking of 18th.
Overall, this is the eighth week in program history that the New Mexico women have been ranked top 25, with all coming since 2015. The men have now logged back-to-back weeks in the top 25 after never climbing past 30th during the regular season.
The rankings, which credit the women with 84.50 points and the men with 45.27, are now calculated using only the NCAA Championship entries.
On the women’s side, the Lobos remained at No. 8 after moving up from 11th two weeks ago and 10th three weeks ago.
Ednah Kurgat leads New Mexico in the rankings, contributing 39.75 points to the squad’s total.
Going into the NCAA Championships, she is seeded second in the 5,000-meter run with her time of 15:19.03 (good for 21.95 points) and third in the 3000 (8:54.47 for 17.80 points).
The relay team of Kieran Casey, Shalom Keller, Alondra Negron Texidor and Kurgat are also seeded third in the distance medley relay with a time of 10:57.77 that adds 18.12 points.
Weini Kelati also adds significantly to the Lobos’ standing with her fourth-seeded time of 15:37.03 in the 5000 (15.58 points) and her eighth-seeded time of 8:59.77 in the 3000 (9.17).
Alice Wright is also contributing in the 5000 with her 15th-seeded time of 15:46.85 (1.87 points).
On the men’s side, Josh Kerr has powered the men to their program-best ranking with his nation-leading time of 3:54.72 in the mile that contributed 22.71 points to the men’s total of 45.27 points.
The quartet of Kerr, Ian Crowe-Wright, Carlos Salcido and Michael Wilson also provided significant points as their nation-best time of 9:24.73 in the DMR counts for 22.56 points.
New Mexico is the only school outside of the Power Five conference with both their men’s and women’s teams ranked in the top 25.
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