Mountain West Cross Country Championships — Reno, Nev.
When/Where: Friday, Montrêux Golf Club in Reno, Nev.
Men: 11 a.m. MT — 8 kilometers
Women: 11:45 a.m. MT — 6 kilometers
Results: GoLobos.com, LiveRunningResults.comMeet Notes | Live Results | Live Stream | USTFCCCA National Results Wall
New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin knows the significance of the races on Friday at the Mountain West Cross Country Championships.
“This is the first race where they’re handing out trophies,” he said.
And the Lobos know a fair deal about those trophies. They have 13 of them in Albuquerque.
But if they want to add to that collection, they’ll have to be better than a dangerous and talented Mountain West.
Behind the nation’s top-ranked women’s team and an improving men’s team, New Mexico cross country is looking to defend its run of conference titles as it heads to the Mountain West Championships Friday.
The NCAA’s consensus No. 1 women’s team will vie for its eighth consecutive conference championship and the men’s team will search for a seventh straight title when they take the course at the Montrêux Golf Club in Reno, Nev.
“The expectation is to have a shot to contend for the title on both sides,” Franklin said. “… I think it will be a very tough competition. I think it will be physically very strenuous because it’s a rolling golf course at elevation against some of the best runners in the country.”
And, without a doubt, this year’s championship is shaping up to be a barnburner.
The top-ranked Lobos women, dominant at two nationally competitive meets earlier this season, will have to contend with the ninth-ranked Boise State squad and two USTFCCCA National Athletes of the Week in Boise State’s Allie Ostrander and Air Force’s Hannah Everson.
The men, who are receiving votes in the polls but aren’t ranked heading into the conference meet for the first time since 2011, have No. 16 Boise State, No. 26 Air Force and No. 30 Colorado State in front of them.
“Without a doubt this is the best the conference has been in a long, long time,” Franklin said.
However, these are the Lobos. They’ve swept every conference championship since 2009, which is tied for the fourth-longest streak in Division I history.
For the women, the foursome of Courtney Frerichs, Rhona Auckland, Alice Wright, and Calli Thackery have led the women so far, while Molly Renfer has emerged as a go-to No. 5 runner.
It was Renfer’s 10th-place finish at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational two weeks ago that sealed the Lobos’ historic win in Madison.
The Lobos won the race with a meet-record 32 points and those five placed 4-5-6-7-10, respectively. That small spread (in a race of over 240 people) helped solidify the women’s selection as No. 1.
UNM will also look to Heleene Tambet, Emily Hosker-Thornhill, Sophie Connor and Natasha Bernal, for strong runs. Besides an unmatched lead pack, the Lobos’ best strength is its depth.
“I think just continuing to race together is the goal,” Franklin said. “I think it’s going to be a very different race.”
The men’s team will lean on Dan Milechman, Elmar Engholm and Graham Thomas for strong runs. That trio has been the lead pack for the men so far, and can parlay the smaller size of the meet to their advantage.
“Going into this meet last year, I thought we were second, third or fourth,” Franklin said. “But being able to see people, it made it a one-on-one competition, which was very positive for us … This meet is a lot different than the big-volume races that the men have gone through in the past.”
Milechman paced the men to a 23rd-place finish at Wisconsin, while Engholm was the low stick in early October at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational.
Finding low finishes from Matt Bergin, Zac Castillo Jesús Mendoza and Josh Kerr will also be key. New Mexico’s struggle this year has been relatively large spreads between runners, which drives up team scores.
But the Lobos have succeeded under these circumstances before, and know the situation.
“This is a big one on both sides,” Franklin said. “It’s the start of the championship season.”
The men will compete at 11 a.m. MT and the women at 11:45 a.m. MT. The meet will be streamed live on the MWN on Campus Insiders, and check back Friday afternoon on GoLobos.com for meet results and a New Mexico recap.