NCAA Mountain Regional Championships — Albuquerque, N.M.
When/Where: Friday, UNM North Golf Course
Women: 12 p.m. MT — six kilometers
Men: 1 p.m. MT — 10 kilometers
Results: GoLobos.com, NCAA.com Meet Notes | Live Results | USTFCCCA National Results Wall
The road to the NCAA Championships runs through Albuquerque. In other words, that means any shot at the NCAAs goes through the Lobos and their No. 1 women’s team.
For the second year in a row, the University of New Mexico cross country teams are hosting the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships this Friday as they eye capturing bids to the NCAA Championships.
The No. 1 Lobo women, who have won every meet they’re run at this year, have all but secured their berth to next week’s national championships in Louisville, Ky., and the Lobo men can stake their claim Friday at the UNM North Golf Course.
UNM has qualified both teams to the NCAA Championships six years in a row, with six straight NCAA appearances for the women and five consecutive for the men.
It’s the eighth longest streak in Division I history and is tied for the second-longest current streak.
With both teams expected to compete in arguably one of the most difficult fields of the NCAA’s slate of regional championships, the Lobos will rely on their solid regular-season credentials.
The women collected a number of résumé-building performances via wins at the Notre Dame Invitational, the Wisconsin adidas Invitational and the Mountain West Championship.
By dint of those showings, the women have essentially guaranteed their spot at the NCAA Championships next week in Louisville.
The top two teams at the nine regional meets automatically advance to the NCAA Championships. After that, the NCAA will chose at-large teams based their wins over other teams and their ‘A’ squads to fill out the 31-team roster.
But making it through the Mountain Region is far from an easy proposition for any team. Although the women are No. 1 in the entire nation, four other nationally ranked women’s squads also run in the region, including second-ranked Colorado.
Winners of the last two Mountain Regionals, the Colorado women will combine with the Lobo women for the first No.1 vs. No. 2 matchup this season.
However, No. 20 Utah, No. 24 BYU and No. 25 Weber State will also contend for an top-two finish Friday.
On the men’s side, the No. 1 Colorado men are the team to beat, followed by No. 3 BYU, No. 11 UTEP, No. 21 Air Force and No. 25 Colorado State. Those teams are the top five in the USTFCCCA Mountain Region rankings, while the Lobo men are ranked 10th.
Still, both the Lobo men and women have the pedigree to compete in this region.
The top-ranked Lobo women will look to Courtney Frerichs, Rhona Auckland Calli Thackery and Molly Renfer to continuing leading the women. That group, along with Alice Wright — who has the weekend off in anticipation for the NCAAs — has scored at every meet this season for the Lobos.
Frerichs has been the top finisher for New Mexico so far, but the when the Lobos finish a race, it’s a pack.
Auckland has come in as UNM’s No. 2 finisher twice this season, both times less than two seconds behind Frerichs. Add in Thackery and Renfer, and the Lobos haven’t registered a team spread larger than 55 seconds.
But it’s the Lobos’ depth that has made them the formidable bunch they are.
Both in their wins at Wisconsin and at the MW Championships, New Mexico could have won the meet scoring more than five runners against any other team’s top five finishers.
Lindsey Andrews, Whitney Thornburg and Natasha Bernal will be looked upon for that depth, with one of them needed for a scoring run. The Lobos can only run seven at this meet, and they are giving some runners a race off before a potential run at a national title.
For the men, they’ll need to continue improving in order to have a chance to qualify. After placing ninth at Notre Dame, the men were 23rd at Wisconsin and fifth at the MW meet.
But the men improved meet by meet, if not by finish, by experience. The men’s team spread shrunk from nearly a minute at Notre Dame to just over 26 seconds at Wisconsin, signalling better running from that group.
The men’s team will lean on Elmar Engholm, Dan Milechman and Graham Thomas for strong runs. Like the women’s fearsome fivesome, that trio has been the frontrunners for the men.
Engholm, a first-team All-MW performer, has been the Lobos’ top finisher twice this season, while Milechman has emerged as one of New Mexico’s best, which included a team-best performance at Wisconsin.
However, finding low finishes from Matt Bergin, Zac Castillo, Josh Kerr and Taylor Potter will be key if the Lobos want to qualify to another NCAA Championships.
But, the championships are on New Mexico’s home turf, and for a program that has qualified both its team to six straight championships, that means the regionals run through Albuquerque.
The women will compete at noon MT, and the men at 1 p.m. MT. Check back Friday evening on GoLobos.com for meet results and a New Mexico recap.