Oct. 16, 2004
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Senior Matt Gonzales was in All-American form on Saturday morning, leading the University of New Mexico men’s cross country team to an impressive 10th place showing at the Pre-Nationals meet this morning at the LaVern Gibson Championship course. Gonzales won the 8,000-meter race with a career best time of 23:47.2 to help the Lobos down six of the 12 nation’s top-30 teams in the Blue race. On the women’s side, fellow senior Jacquelyne Gallegos turned in the finest race of her career, finishing 15th out of 246 runners with a personal record 6K time of 21:00.
Racing for the first time since the Sept. 11 season-opener, Gonzales showed no signs of rust as he bested 255 runners in the elite field for his first victory since Oct. 5, 2001. The Santa Fe native’s win was a tight one as Colorado’s Brent Vaughn finished less than a second behind with a time of 23:48.1. Vaughn, however, led the sixth-ranked Buffaloes to an impressive victory with a score of 63 points.
Gonzales’ teammated did a solid job keeping pace as the UNM top five finished with pack spread of 1:38. Freshman Shadrack Biwott placed 51st with a time of 24:48.2 and senior Ben Ortega made a succesful return to action after his LSAT exam forced him to miss the last meet. Ortega finished 16 seconds behind Biwott in 79th place, just eight seconds ahead of fellow senior Sean Flaherty (96tselh – 25:12.5). Junior Cameron Clarke capped the scoring for the Lobos, placing 117th with a time of 25:25.7.
New Mexico scored 344 points as it bested 26 teams, including No. 22 William & Mary, No. 23 Miami (Ohio), No. 26 Georgia, No. 27 Montana, No. 28 Washington and No. 29 Central Michigan.
Gallegos, meanwhile, took a big step towards returning to the NCAA Championship meet for the first time since 2001 with her performance on Saturday. The Pojoaque native shined on the national stage in her best race since securing an automatic berth to nationals as a true freshman at the 2001 Mountain Region Championships. Gallegos’ UNM teammates ran hard as freshman Lindsay Barr (184th – 23:05.7) and sophomore Riann Lucy (213th – 23:36.0) both recorded career-best 6K times. Junior Janice Tosa (192nd) was also solid, finishing with a time of 23:12.3. True freshman Sheyenne Lewis, meanwhile, had a strong varsity debut for the Lobos, clocking a time of 23:42.1 (219th).
Senior Vanessa Funston (231st – 23:56) and freshman Stasia Ploskonka (243rd – 24:39.3) rounded out the UNM top seven as the Lobos finished 34th with a score of 823. No. 4 Colorado held off sixth-ranked Michigan, 94-109, for the team title.
The Lobos get another week off from competition before returning to action on Oct. 30 for the Mountain West Conference Championships in San Diego. The meet will be the last chance for the UNM men to improve their status with the NCAA Championships selection committee for a potential at-large berth to the national meet in late November.