Sept. 29, 2004
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UPCOMING
The University of New Mexico men’s and women’s cross country teams visit Cary, N.C. on Friday, Oct. 1 for the elite Great American Cross Country Festival, a meet the teams have had circled on their calendar since the summer. New Mexico’s young supporting cast will face perhaps its biggest test of the year as the vaunted men’s squad will be without two of its top three runners in All-American Matt Gonzales and fellow senior Ben Ortega. The women’s team will also be without one of its top runners, junior Timmie Murphy, who is out for the year due to injury.
Despite sitting out in the Lobos’ last meet at New Mexico State on Sept. 18, Gonzales developed a painful IT band injury in his knee during training and has not practiced this week. Ortega, meanwhile, has a law school entrance exam on Friday that could not be rescheduled. True freshman Shadrack Biwott, who also skipped the NMSU meet, will lead the Lobo men in North Carolina. Head coach Matt Henry said the team will big races from veterans Cameron Clarke, Nick Martinez, Sean Flaherty and Nate Clem, as well as young runners Stephen Martinez, Joseph Garcia and Juan Ortega to help overcome the loss of Gonzales and Ortega.
“Honestly, I’m a little nervous about this meet,” said Henry. “I wasn’t sure if we’d even be able to fly in and out of [Raleigh, N.C.] with the storms they’ve had sweep through there, but we’re definitely going to have a real challenge ahead of us running without Matt and Ben. The timing is unfortunate because this is a big race for us, but we’ve still got some talented people and we’re going out there to see what we can do. There’s no doubt that missing our number one and number three guys hurts us big time, but we can’t make any excuses. We just have to get out there and do it.”
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“We’re definitely going to have a real challenge ahead of us running without Matt (Gonzales) and Ben (Ortega)…but we’ve still got some talented people and we’re going out there to see what we can do.” -UNM head coach Matt Henry |
Both the UNM men and women will be competing in the Nike Race of Champions on Friday afternoon. The men’s 8,000-meter race features five top-25 teams (No. 6 Michigan, No. 8 N. C. State, No. 15 Northern Arizona, No. 19 Central Michigan, No. 22 Georgia) and three teams receiving votes in the national poll (William & Mary, Virginia), including New Mexico. Division II power Adams State College will also be part of the field. The women’s 6K race will be just as challenging with four top-25 teams (No. 3 BYU, No. 5 N.C. State, No. 9 North Carolina, No. 12 Duke) and four more squads (NAU, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia) receiving votes in the national poll. The women’s competition gets underway at 2:45 p.m. (Mountain), followed by the men at 3:15.
The SAS Soccer Park is the home course for the North Carolina State cross country team and the Great American Cross Country Festival. The Park is surrounded by a forest of pines and hardwoods. It is in this area that the course has been built to USATF, NCAA and IAAF specifications. All races will finish inside the 7,000-seat SAS Soccer Park stadium. While there was a concern about storms in the area caused by Hurricane Jeanne, the weather forecast for Friday appears to be favorable with partly cloudy skies, a high of 78 degrees and a 20 percent chance of precipitation.
MEET INFORMATION/RESULTS
Complete information and results from the 2004 Great American Cross Country Festival can be found on the official website of the National Scholastic Sports Federation:
Great American Cross Country Classic Info/Results
LAST TIME OUT (at Kachina Classic)
Senior Ben Ortega and junior Cameron Clarke finished seventh and eighth, respectively, to lead the short-handed University of New Mexico men’s cross country team to a second place finish at the Kachina Classic meet on Sept. 18 at the New Mexico State University Golf Course. Senior Jacquelyne Gallegos was impressive once again, placing fourth overall to help the UNM women finish third. Division II power Adams State College swept both the men’s and women’s team titles.
UNM head coach Matt Henry gave three of the Lobos’ top five men (seniors Matt Gonzales and Sean Flaherty, and freshman Shadrack Biwott) the weekend off to rest for the upcoming Great American Cross Country Festival on Oct. 1.
Ortega and Clarke, however, led a tight group of Cherry and Silver clad runners in a solid performance. The Lobo duo finished in a virtual tie, recording identical times of 23:16, less than a minute behind the winner, Aucencio Martinez of Adams State (22:28). Ortega was the team’s third finisher, behind Biwott and Gonzales, at last week’s Lobo Invitational in Albuquerque, a meet Clarke missed due to illness.
Brothers Nick and Stephen Martinez finished 11th (23:42) and 12th (23:43), respectively, while freshman Joseph Garcia was 11 seconds behind in 13th to cap the UNM scoring. New Mexico’s pack spread was a slim 38 seconds and the Lobos’ first seven runners, including junior Nate Clem (14th – 23:58) and sophomore Juan Ortega (17th – 24:08), finished less than a minute apart.
Gallegos, meanwhile, kept her momentum going in her second race of the year. The reigning Mountain West Conference Cross Country Athlete of the Week completed the 5,000-meter course in 17:58, just 12 seconds off the winner, Adriana Pirtea of UTEP. Sophomore Riann Lucy was second on the team, placing 13th overall with a time of 19:25. True freshman Lindsay Barr was two spots behind with a time of 19:41, followed by senior Vanessa Funston (17th – 19:52) and junior Janice Tosa (19th – 20:06). Rookie runners Leslie Luna and Stasia Ploskonka ran side-by-side, placing 25th (20:35) and 26th (20:37), respectively, to round out the Lobos’ top seven.
LOBOS SWEEP FIRST MWC ATHLETE OF THE WEEK AWARDS
University of New Mexico freshman Shadrack Biwott and senior Jacquelyne Gallegos were selected as the Mountain West Conference men’s and women’s cross country athletes of the week, respectively, the league office announced on Sept. 16. Gallegos is the first UNM woman, under head coach Matt Henry, to win the weekly honor, while Biwott is the fourth member of the men’s team selected.
Biwott, an Eldoret, Kenya, native, won at the Lobo Invitational on Sept. 11 in Albuquerque, capturing his collegiate debut and leading the Lobos to the team victory. He finished the 8K race in 24:44, edging out teammate Matt Gonzales at the tape, while finishing a full 40 seconds ahead of the third place finisher.
Gallegos, from Pojoaque, N.M., had a triumphant comeback performance at the Lobo Invite, finishing third overall (out of 100 runners). She posted a career-best time of 22:13 in the 6K race, 16 seconds better than her previous career-high set in 2001. It was her highest finish since the 2002 Lobo Invite, where she finished second.
HAIL TO THE VICTORS
In the five years (1995-99) prior to Matt Henry’s arrival as head cross country coach at New Mexico, the Lobo men’s team had notched just one meet victory. However, since Henry took control of the program in 2000, the men have captured nine team titles, including the 2004 season-opener, the Lobo Invitational.
UNM cruised to a 32-point victory over runner-up Texas A&M, which finished 19th at last year’s NCAA Championships, and was 70 points better than the rest of the 12-team field.
Last year, the Lobo men won back-to-back mid-season races. UNM defeated Wyoming and Utah in a pre-conference triangular meet in San Diego, then defeated 11 squads at the Canyon West Classic in Tempe, Ariz. two weeks later. The Lobos scored an average of 28.5 points in their two wins.
The Lobo women also got into the act in 2003, earning their first team title under Henry at the Canyon West Cross Country Classic on Oct. 18. New Mexico scored a season-low 31 points and ran with a season-low pack spread of 55 seconds to pick up its first win since the 1998 season-opener at UTEP.
In 2002, the men of New Mexico opened the season undefeated through three meets (UNM did not field a full team in its fourth meet, the Cowboy Jamboree) before finishing 17th at the Pre-National Invitational. After opening with another dominating win at the Lori Fitzgerald, UNM followed with a victory over a 12-team field in their home-opener, the UNM Lobo Invitational, then notched an impressive first place finish ahead of 29 teams at the 29th annual Stanford Invitational.
THE HEART OF A CHAMPION
Senior Jacquelyne Gallegos would probably earn the Comeback Runner of the Year award if the Mountain West Conference had such an honor, but instead she may just have to be content with a return to the NCAA Championship meet for the first time in three years.
As a highly touted true freshman in 2001, Gallegos established herself as New Mexico’s top runner on the women’s side. She led the Lobos in three meets and recorded four of the team’s top-10 6K times. Gallegos placed 19th at the MWC Championships and then finished 19th once again at the elite NCAA Mountain Region Championships to earn an automatic bid to the national meet. One of the youngest Lobos ever to compete on the national stage, the 18-year-old Gallegos finished 217th out of 244 runners.
Gallegos was enjoying a terrific start to the 2002 season, having led the team in its first two meets with a pair of top-5 finishes, including a career-best runner-up performance at the 2002 Lobo Invite. The following week, however, Gallegos was involved in a near fatal auto accident on Sept. 21, and suffered broken bones in her back and pelvis. On crutches for several weeks, Gallegos didn’t even begin to jog again for five months.
Last year, she endured a grueling and often frustrating fall, finishing just three races. However, Gallegos battled back to notch her best performance in the season-finale at the Mountain Region Championships and hasn’t slowed down since. Following a solid indoor season, Gallegos earned outdoor all-conference honors on the track (1,500m) for the first time in her career, serving official notice that she was indeed back.
This fall the Pojoaque, N.M. native has opened the season with a pair of top-5 finishes, leading the team in both races. She also leads the MWC with a top 6K time of 22:13 and is second in the league with a 5K time of 17:58. While Gallegos will face her biggest challenge this Friday at the Great American Cross Country Classic, head coach Matt Henry said she is running better than ever and will make a serious run at an NCAA berth in November.
Henry also said that he and his staff will appeal to the NCAA to seek a fifth year of eligibility for Gallegos to replace her ruined 2002 season. With a little goodwill and empathy from the NCAA office, Henry hopes Gallegos can return in 2005 to put a story book ending on her memorable UNM career.
WELCOME BACK GONZALES
After a year off from cross country competition, senior Matt Gonzales showed no rust in his return to off-road racing at the Lobo Invitational. The four-time track and cross country All-American and freshman phenom Shadrack Biwott quickly left the field behind, cruising to the finish line 40 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. Gonzales’ second place performance was his best finish in three years, since earning the silver medal at the 2001 Mountain West Conference Championships.
“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.”
Seniors Ben Ortega and Nick Martinez also made a successful return to cross country after sitting out in 2003. Ortega finished third on the team and ninth overall, while Martinez was the Lobos’ seventh runner, placing 16th overall. The fourth Lobo coming off a 2003 redshirt season, junior Cameron Clarke, was held out of the race due to illness.
“It was strange,” said Ortega of his return to cross country. “One minute I felt great and the next I was dead, but all-in-all it wasn’t too bad for a season-opener. We can still do a lot better as a team and I think we’re just scratching the surface.”
MOUNTAIN WEST RESPECT
The hype began in earnest on Aug. 24 for the University of New Mexico men’s cross country team as the Lobos were picked to finish second, their highest rank ever, in the 2004 Mountain West Conference preseason coaches poll. New Mexico received 19 points, including one first place vote, to tie defending champion Air Force. The UNM women (27 points) were ranked sixth in the preseason poll, just one point behind fourth-ranked Utah and Wyoming, and four shy of No. 3 Air Force. The BYU men (23) and women (49) were the favorites in both coaches polls.
The Lobos previous best rank in the preseason poll was a third place prognostication in 2002. UNM won its first three meets and rose as high as 27th in the country before a wave of injuries took its toll on the team. The Lobos went on to place third at the MWC meet and missed advancing to NCAA Championships by six points at the regional meet.
With its top four runners all redshirting in 2003, the UNM men placed fourth at the conference meet, matching its preseason ranking once again. The women’s team placed fifth, also matching the coaches’ preseason prediction.
HOMEGROWN LOBOS
University of New Mexico head coach Matt Henry has built the UNM program by using his greatest natural resource: New Mexico high school distance runners. Of the 40 runners on the 2004 roster, all but four were products of New Mexico high schools, including Kenyan Shadrack Biwott. Every NCAA Championship competitor, All-American and all-Mountain West honoree under Henry has hailed from the Land of Enchantment.