Samuel, Kiplagat Earn All-American Honors on Day One in Boston
BOSTON, Mass. – Habtom Samuel and Evans Kiplagat both earned the second All-American honors of their young careers to conclude Day One of competition on Friday at NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, with Samuel matching the best 5K finish ever by a Lobo men’s athlete and putting down the fastest time ran by a Lobo in a 5,000m National Championship final with a fourth-place finish.
In an elite field of 16 runners, Samuel finished fourth against the best competition in the nation, crossing the finish line in 13:30.07 to earn USTFCCCA First Team All-American honors. The 2023 NCAA Cross Country Runner-Up was the fastest-finishing freshman in the race, edging out Arkansas freshman Peter Maru (13:30.51) at the finish line as he moved from seventh place to fourth over the final eight laps – he posted three consecutive sub-30 second 200m splits to close out the race (29.44, 29.23, 28.54).
Samuel is the highest-placing Lobo men’s athlete at Indoor Championships since Josh Kerr won it all in the mile in 2018, tying Chris Barnicle (2010) and Matt Gonzalez (2005) — who both also finished fourth — for the best Indoor National Championship finish by a Lobo men’s athlete in the 5,000m. His time was more than 13 seconds faster than both, and nearly four seconds faster than Luke Caldwell’s 13:34.54 elevation-converted time in 2014.
Kiplagat followed in 15th place with a 13:46.41 time to make the All-America Second Team – the second All-American honor for the true freshman after finishing 33rd at the NCAA Cross Country Championship race in November.
All 16 competitors finished under the previous facility record (13:50.55) set a little over two weeks prior by Carter Solomon of Notre Dame. First-place finisher Nico Young of Northern Arizona was less than seven seconds shy of the NCAA Indoor Championship record.
UP NEXT
Samuel will return tomorrow to compete in the men’s 3,000m final, set for a 3 p.m. MT start. This weekend’s action will be live streamed via ESPN, with live results available via GoLobos.com/TrackResults – follow @UNMLoboXCTF on Instagram and X for live coverage, meet day content and more.
