Oct. 27, 2007
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Jeremy Johnson made sure his final collegiate race in his hometown would be a memorable one. The Albuquerque Manzano product dominated the field in a wire-to-wire victory (24:23) this morning at Mountain West Conference Cross Country Championship meet held at the UNM North Golf Course. New Mexico placed its five scoring runners in the top-20 to finish second (51 points) – just five points behind BYU – in the team’s best conference meet performance since winning the Western Athletic Conference title in 1988.
Later, junior transfer Michelle Corrigan placed fifth (21:20) in her MWC debut to lead the New Mexico women to a third place finish (94 points). The Lobos finished among the top-three in the conference for the third straight year – the best run since six consecutive top-three finishes from 1983-88.
New Mexico placed both its men’s and women’s teams among the top-three for the first time since 1988 when the men won the WAC title and the women were third in the old High Country Athletic Conference. The men recorded their best score at a conference meet since the 1965 team won the WAC Championship with a program record score of 27.
Just three days earlier, the MWC office announced that due to the wildfires threatening Southern California the conference championship meet would move from San Diego to Albuquerque. Johnson and the Lobos made the most of the unexpected opportunity to run in front of their home crowd.
Johnson, Wyoming’s Mark Korir and TCU’s Festus Kigen got out quickly, completing the first mile in 4:43. The trio was still tight two miles into the race as they crossed at 9:36 (4:53 second mile).
The New Mexico senior, however, began to apply the pressure midway through the race, running his third mile in 4:52 – 12 seconds faster than Korir and well ahead of a rapidly fading Kigen.
Johnson continued to pour it on over the final two miles, breaking Korir with a 5:05 fourth mile followed by a blazing 4:50 fifth mile to win by 25 seconds. Johnson, who holds the regular season MWC and UNM record for an 8K race (23:27), clocked the sixth-fastest time in MWC Championship history (24:23) as he became the first native New Mexican to win a conference cross country title for the Lobos since the great John Baker in 1964.
Johnson was just the second UNM runner to win a men’s conference title in the last 41 years, joining Albuquerque La Cueva product Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (2004).
“I wanted to give people a good show here with my last hometown race for cross country,” said Johnson. “That’s something special. That’s a dream come true.”
Johnson, who was fifth at the 2006 MWC Championships, said his plan was to set the tempo early and determine who the title contenders were right away.
“From the very get-go, I didn’t want to mess around,” he said. “I said we’re going to have an honest race, so we went with a good pace and it was pretty simple.”
As Johnson distanced himself the other UNM scorers maintained a tight group near the front f the chase pack. Junior transfer Mat Ashton ran with the top-10 throughout the race and finished eighth with a time of 25:09 – just nine seconds out of fifth place. Sophomore transfer Brock Hagerman, the Big East Freshman of the Year last fall at Notre Dame, ran one of his best races of the season, placing 11th with a time of 25:23.
Sophomore Brian Vallie, meanwhile, turned in the biggest performance for the Lobos in the finest cross country race of his young career. Vallie, the MWC 800-meter outdoor silver medalist in 2007, blew by four runners down the final straight to finish 13th with a time of 25:25. The Hardin, Mont. product improved a remarkable 32 spots on his MWC finish a year ago.
Ashton, Hagerman and Vallie earned a place on the all-conference second team, giving New Mexico a program-record four all-MWC honorees.
Not to be outdone, senior Joseph Garcia also used a late surge to pick off several runners and finish 18th – his best MWC performance – with a time of 25:35. Garcia’s effort at the No. 5 position allowed UNM to hold off third place Air Force 51-52 and finish two spots above its projection in the preseason coaches’ poll.
“It was a fun day,” said first-year New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin. “I think we’ve realized that we can compete with BYU (on the men’s side). I think we ran a pretty good race on the men’s side, but not a great race by any stretch.”
Franklin said Johnson’s performance was special considering the adjustment he’s had to make to the new coaching staff.
“Jeremy Johnson was awesome,” he said. “It’s always difficult when you have somebody who is in their sixth year that’s set in their ways of training, but I think he’s been real receptive and open and I think the results show. I think he’s one of the top runners in the country.”
On the women’s side, Corrigan continued her outstanding debut season at UNM, giving the Lobos’ a first team all-conference runner for the fifth-straight season – the longest streak in program history. The transfer from Mississippi State ran a strong, consistent race, crossing the line just 15 seconds behind the winner, Colorado State senior April Thomas.
Senior transfer Kara Henry and sophomore Vanessa Ortiz finished within four seconds of each other, placing 16th (22:20) and 18th (22:24), respectively. Henry was two spots shy of a place on the all-MWC second team, while Ortiz matched her 2006 finish at the MWC meet.
Junior transfer Carolyn Boosey and senior Sheyenne Lewis capped the UNM scoring, finishing 28th (22:53) and 29th (22:58), respectively. Lewis improved 16 spots on her MWC finish from a year ago.
No. 12 Colorado State put four runners in the top-eight to knock off 17th-ranked BYU for the first time in MWC history, 33-39.
Franklin said he had hoped his UNM women would be able to break up the powerful Ram and Cougar packs a little more, but was pleased with the team’s performance overall.
“The women ran really well,” he said. “Michelle Corrigan has improved a great deal and it was great to see Vanessa Ortiz bounce back.”
Men’s Results
Team Results
Individual Results
Complete Results in PDF Format
Women’s Results
Team Results
Individual Results
Complete Results in PDF Format