ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Lobo women didn’t need to win Friday to go the NCAA Championships. But, because of their performance Friday, they now can vie for a win at nationals.
The No. 1 University of New Mexico women’s cross country team earned a bid for the NCAA Championships as it cruised to a second-place and qualifying performance at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships Friday.
Behind a smothering pack of runners, the Lobo women had no difficulty securing one of the two automatic berths in the NCAA’s Mountain Region, relying on five runners in the top 13 to capture an eighth straight berth at the NCAA Championships.
“It’s at some level irrelevant,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said of the second-place finish. “The top two automatically go through to the next stage of the championship. That was the goal, how do you get to the finals? What’s the easiest way to get there?”
For the Lobos, the easiest way was by conservatively running as a pack as they rested some key contributors in anticipation of next week’s national championship in Louisville, Ky.
And while No. 2 Colorado just nipped top-ranked New Mexico 49-50 in the low-score-wins format, the Lobos and Franklin stilled obtained their goal of an NCAA berth.
“It was so much fun,” Courtney Frerichs said. “We had such a blast out there. We enjoyed the race. We were just soaking it in and enjoying each other’s company and just racing for the team.”
On the men’s side, New Mexico placed ninth as a team in the 16-team race. Although the men missed a potential at-large bid by one or two positions, Franklin said, the men should be able to qualify Elmar Engholm as an individual.
The top two teams at the nine regional meets automatically advance to the NCAA Championships, and the NCAA will subsequently chose at-large teams based on their wins over other teams to fill out the 31-team roster.
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Additionally, the next four individuals that finished top-25 at a regional but did not qualify as part of a team gain admission.
“I don’t want to you know get my hopes up,” Engholm said, “but if I do make it, it’s a relief for me because that’s kind of what I’m training for the whole year. If I do make it, it’s quite exciting and hopefully I can convert to a good race next week.”
This week, however, the good races belonged to the New Mexico women as they continued their rampage toward the NCAAs.
After winning every meet before the regionals, the Lobos were all but guaranteed an at-large spot, and Franklin and his staff placed the emphasis on making it through the regionals healthy and happy en route to nationals.
“They did exactly what they were supposed to,” Franklin said. “They ran great, they had fun, they ran with their friends.”
New Mexico placed its five scorers in succession, with Calli Thackery leading the pack. Thackery finished the women’s six-kilometer course in ninth place with a time of 21 minutes, 15.33 seconds, ahead of Frerichs (10th, 21:15.35), Molly Renfer (11th, 21:15.42), Rhona Auckland (12th, 21:15.53) and Whitney Thornburg (13th, 21:19.68).
“I’ve never seen [a such a tight pack], not like that,” Frerichs said. “I’ve seen like two maybe, but never five, so it feels nice.”
The Lobos registered a team spread of 4.35 seconds between their first scorer and fifth scorer.
“The goal was to have a very tight pack,” Franklin said. “… They did a great job.”
This effort was without 2014 cross country All-American Alice Wright or All-Mountain West runners Heleene Tambet and Emily Hosker-Thornhill, who were all resting for next week.
True freshman Natasha Bernal finished 32nd (time of 21:49.07) and Lindsey Andrews took 55th (22:27.33) for the Lobos, who, by rule, only ran seven women at the meet.
Together, UNM registered a team score of 50 points, one behind Colorado and 66 ahead of third-place Utah (116 points). BYU (126) and Weber State (128) placed fourth and fifth in the 19-team race.
It was the lowest score in the history of the program, eclipsing the previous best of 53 points set in a win in 2010.
For the men, Engholm’s 24th-place performance highlighted a solid day of running for the men. The senior from Stockholm finished the men’s 10-kilometer course in 30:42.23, and has a solid shot of making the NCAAs.
“We hope to have one individual make it,” Franklin said. “He closed really well, finished 24th.”
The Lobos will know if Engholm has advanced Saturday afternoon after the NCAA announces the list of at-large team and individual qualifiers.
Behind Engholm was Dan Milechman, who placed 30th in 30:59.25. Also scoring for the men were Zac Castillo (51st, 31:56.48), Graham Thomas (59th, 32:14.19) and Taylor Potter (91st, 33:30.50).
Matt Bergin (98th, 34:03.07) and Josh Kerr (did not finish) also ran for the Lobos, who scored 254 points.
“It was a pretty quick race today so I was just trying to hang on for dear life,” Engholm said. “I had Dan and Graham with me for quite some time and at like 6K or so I started feeling a little tired, legs started getting a bit heavy, so I was just trying to hang on for as long as I could and bring it to the finish.”
The No. 1 Colorado men won with 67 points, while No. 11 UTEP was second with 77 points. No. 3 BYU (third, 98 points), RV Southern Utah (fourth, 114), No. 21 Air Force (fifth, 124) and No. 25 Colorado State (sixth, 124) are expected to earn at-large bids.
The NCAA Championships are next Saturday, November 21, at E.P. ‘Tom’ Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky.
NOTES: It was the fourth straight second-place regional finish for the Lobos women, who last won in 2010 and 2011 … The New Mexico’s men’s team score of 254 points was the most by the team since scoring 313 in 2003 … The last Lobo men to qualify as an individual to the NCAAs was Jeremy Johnson in 2007 … Johnson was an All-American that year, placing 20th.