SAN DIEGO – True freshman Shadrack Biwott and senior Matt Gonzales proved to be the class of the Mountain West Conference, finishing first and second, respectively, this morning at the MWC Cross Country Championships at Balboa Park. Biwott ended a 38-year drought by becoming the first University of New Mexico runner to win a conference championship race since 1966 as he and Gonzales led the 23rd-ranked Lobos to a third place finish (69 points). No. 10 BYU reclaimed the league title, besting 12th-ranked Air Force, the 2003 champ, 39-57. No. 17 Colorado State, meanwhile, was fourth, behind UNM, with 75 points. New Mexico matched its best Mountain West Conference finish under fifth-year head coach Matt Henry (2002) and turned in its lowest score at a conference meet since winning the 1988 Western Athletic Conference title with a score of 63 points.
On the women’s side, senior Jacquelyne Gallegos turned in her best conference meet performance, earning first team all-MWC honors with a fourth place finish. Gallegos crossed the finish line of the hilly 6,000-meter course with a time of 22:16, 53 seconds behind the winner, BYU senior Laura Turner. New Mexico (163 points), however, finished sixth out of eight teams on the women’s side. No. 12 BYU (24 points) cruised to its 17th straight conference title, while 23rd-ranked CSU was second with 59 points.
“We had a pretty good day, but we’re still trying to reach our peak,” UNM head coach Matt Henry said of his men’s performance. “The women are a little younger than I thought, but you can’t say enough about how Jackie has run this season.”
According to Henry, Gonzales was leading the 8,000-meter race, but was delayed briefly when he took a wrong turn and had to hurry back to the correct path. Nevertheless, he and Biwott gradually pulled away from the lead pack and, in a scene reminiscent of their performance in the season-opener in Albuquerque, sprinted down the final stretch together. The former La Cueva High School standout was able to pull ahead at the tape, clocking a time of 24:44, one second faster than Gonzales.
With the victory, Biwott became just the fourth runner in 42 years of New Mexico cross country to bring home a conference cross country title, joining Ed Coleman (1963), John Baker (1964) and George Scott (1965 & `66). The Eldoret, Kenya native also earned MWC Runner of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors with the win. Gonzales, meanwhile, earned first team all-MWC honors for the third time in his three seasons at New Mexico and matched his best career finish at the conference meet. The Santa Fe native was also second in his MWC debut in Albuquerque as a sophomore in 2001.
The Lobos got a big boost from junior Cameron Clarke, who turned in his best race of the year, finishing 14th (25:39) to earn second team all-conference honors. Fellow junior Nate Clem also provided a big lift, scoring for the second time this year with a 26th place finish (26:22), his best at the conference meet. Sophomore Stephen Martinez also notched his best MWC Championship finish, placing 30th (26:41) to cap the Lobo scoring. Sophomore Juan Ortega (34th) and senior Ben Ortega (35th) rounded out the UNM top-7, clocking identical times of 26:57.
Gallegos, meanwhile, had a historic performance of her own. The Pojoaque native recorded the best finish by a UNM woman at the conference championships since current UNM volunteer assistant Kelly Dunbar (formerly Kelly Dix) placed third at the 1992 WAC Championships. Gallegos improved 58 spots on her 2003 MWC race, which came at the end of a grueling season of recovery, following her 2002 auto accident. Her previous best finish came during her freshman year when she was 19th at the 2001 MWC Championships. Gallegos is the second straight UNM woman to earn first team all-conference honors. Sarah Gonzales finished seventh last year in Albuquerque to become the first ever all-MWC honoree for the women.
New Mexico’s other scoring runners were a sophomore (Riann Lucy) and three freshmen (Lindsay Barr, Stasia Ploskonka and Leslie Luna), who all gained valuable experience and should be factors at the conference meet in the years to come. Lucy finished 38th with a time of 24:26, while Barr was two spots behind in 40th (24:51). Ploskonka and Luna both scored for the first time this year, finishing 44th (25:22) and 47th (25:26), respectively. Junior Janice Tosa (51st – 25:51) and senior Vanessa Funston (52nd – 25:59) rounded out the UNM top-7.
The Lobos resume their postseason push continues in two weeks when they travel to Fort Collins, Colo. on Nov. 11 for the biggest meet of the year, the NCAA Mountain Region Championships. Team and individual national championship berths will be on the line as the UNM men and women take on the teams in one of the premier cross country divisions in the country.