Sept. 11, 2004
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Freshman phenom Shadrack Biwott and senior All-American Matt Gonzales blew away the field to lead the University of New Mexico men to a convincing season-opening victory this morning at the 2004 Lobo Invitational cross country meet. Senior Jacquelyne Gallegos also enjoyed a stellar start to her season, finishing third to help the UNM women place third as a team at the UNM North Golf Course.
Running in front of a few thousand vocal New Mexico cross country fans, Biwott and Gonzales charged out and quickly distanced themselves from the field, which included 2003 All-American Mircea Bogdan of UTEP. The duo ran their first mile in four minutes and 43 seconds, then crossed the two-mile marker at 9:40, a full 16 seconds ahead of the nearest runners. Two miles later and firmly in control of the race, Biwott and Gonzales extended their lead to 22 seconds.
As they entered the final stretch, a corridor between hundreds of screaming fans, the only mystery remaining was which Lobo would ease off the throttle at the finish line. Running smoothly, stride-for-stride, Gonzales pulled back slightly at the line, allowing the 5-10 Biwott to secure the victory in his first collegiate race. Officially, however, the duo clocked identical 24:44 times over the 8,000-meter course, 40 seconds ahead of Bogdan (25:24), who finished third.
For Gonzales, the race marked a solid return to cross country running after redshirting the 2003 season, along with teammates Ben Ortega, Nick Martinez and Cameron Clarke.
“It was a little different being on the course again after so much on the track the past year, but it felt really good.,” said Gonzales. “It was an easy race for us. Shadrack was awesome. We decided to come in together and just finish up strong.”
“It was a good race,” said Biwott. “I just went out there and ran with Matt. We wanted to break away and just run an easy race. This is a really good team. Everybody is doing their job and what they’re supposed to do in training.”
Much more than a two-man show, however, the New Mexico top-7 were impressive in their first race of the year, despite running without junior standout Cameron Clarke, who was recovering from illness. Senior s Ben Ortega (26:15) and Sean Flaherty (26:20) finished ninth and 11th, respectively, followed by surprising sophomore Stephen Martinez (26:20), who was 12th. Junior Nate Clem (15th – 26:43) and senior Nick Martinez (16th – 26:43), Stephen’s older brother, rounded out a strong first seven as the Lobos (35 points) easily defeated runner-up Texas A&M (67 points), which finished 19th at last year’s NCAA Championship meet.
“We looked back a few times, saw how well our team was running and were really pleased with that,” said Gonzales. “This was a great boost to our team confidence overall. We’re ready to go to (the Great American Classic in Raleigh, N.C.) and get it done.”
Perhaps the best story of the day, however, was Gallegos’ triumphant comeback performance on her home course. After a nearly-fatal auto accident ended her season following the 2002 Lobo Invite, Gallegos struggled to regain her form through a disappointing campaign last fall. The Pojoaque native re-emerged, however, during the 2004 track season when she earned all-conference honors in the 1,500. Saturday morning, she picked up where she left off and turned of the best cross country performance of her career.
Gallegos jumped out to a big lead early in the women’s 6,000-meter race, running her first mile in 5:35, nearly 20 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. Two miles in, Gallegos held a 14-second lead on Texas Tech’s Bridget Tidwell and Irene Kimaiyo, but the Red Raiders began to close the gap.
Jacquelyne Gallegos enjoyed her best performance in nearly two years.
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Tidwell and Kimaiyo eventually caught Gallegos and the trio jockeyed for the lead with roughly 1,000 meters to go. Down the final stretch, however, Kimaiyo pulled away from both runners and crossed the line with a time of 22:01. Tidwell crossed at 22:10, followed closely by Gallegos, who recorded a career-best 6K time of 22:13. UTEP’s Adriana Pirtea, last year’s meet winner, was fourth with a time of 22:22.
“This was just a fun race to get started with,” said Gallegos. “It was my best race in a couple years and I just had fun with it. It’s been awhile since I’ve really been healthy enough to race this well, so I didn’t know how I was going to start, but I just got out there and tried to hang in there.”
The New Mexico women finished third out of 12, despite missing a key runner in junior Timmie Murphy, who was out with an injury. Sophomore Riann Lucy, who was 27th last year, finished 17th (23:59), while junior Janice Tosa was 18th (24:03). True freshman Lindsay Barr had a strong collegiate debut, finishing 21st (24:03), while fellow freshman Kellie Nickerson was 32nd (2:501) to cap the UNM scoring. In a battle of regional powers, Mountain Region No. 5 Texas Tech defeated South-Central Region No. 5 Texas A&M 26-47 to capture the team title. UTEP was fourth (101 points), while LSU finished fifth (128 points).
The Lobo men and women return to action next Saturday, Sept. 18 at the Kachina Classic in Las Cruces, N.M. The upcoming race is likely to feature more of New Mexico’s young runners, particularly on the men’s side, as the Lobos prepare to take on some of the nation’s finest teams at the Great American Classic Cross Country Festival in Raleigh, N.C. on Oct. 1.=””>