TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Another national championship, another top-10 finish for the Lobos. For a team with their pedigree, it’s just par for the course.
Alice Wright and Calli Thackery both ran to All-American honors to power the sixth-ranked University of New Mexico women’s cross country team to a seventh-place finish at the 2016 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships Saturday.
Behind a pair of top-30 finishes from Wright (19th place) and Thackery (28th), the Lobos women posted their seventh-straight top-10 finish at the national championships as they competed in a tightly contested race at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.
“From a team standpoint, if you look at the 2-kilometer and 4-kilometer splits, we ran incredibly as a team,” 10th-year New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said. “We moved up over 150 points the last 2K. We were in 18th place at 4K and for our team to do that is is awesome.”
Competing in their ninth straight NCAA Championship — and 11th overall — the Lobos continued to prove they are among the best, most consistent teams in the nation, logging a top-10 finish at the NCAAs for the seventh year in a row.
Saturday’s finish extended New Mexico’s run as the longest active streak of top-10 performances at the NCAA Championships. That includes the 2015 NCAA title and a third-place finish in 2014.
UNM’s streak of top-10 finishes is also tied as the seventh-longest streak in NCAA history.
“You’re getting in rarefied air,” Franklin said of the streak. “It shows the women don’t quit. We only had two runners that returned from last year’s championship team and to have have five new runners come in is amazing. They grind and they want to be great.”
Wright led the Lobos on the six-kilometer course, registering her third All-American performance in cross country. The redshirt junior from Worcester, England, finished in 20 minutes, 13.2 second to place 19th.
She ties Carole Roybal as the only athlete in program history (men or women) to be named All-American three times in cross country. Wright was 20th in 2014 and fifth last year as the Lobos won the national title. Combined with track & field, Wright has the most All-American honors (five) of any female athlete in program history.
Thackery, a senior from Yorkshire, England, was close behind, taking 28th place in 20:17.4. It’s the second All-American honor along with a 15th-place showing last season.
Both ran together for the first four kilometers, leading a large pack through two-thirds of the race. As the race begun to string out and runners started to make their moves in the final two kilometers, Wright and Thackery held steady, combining to lead UNM for the fifth-straight meet.
“From an individual standpoint, Calli and Alice, they went for it,” Franklin said of the duo’s bid for the individual crown. “Sometimes when you go for it, it doesn’t pan out the way you hope it does. The conditions here were very tough and they went out after it.”
However, behind that tandem, it’s the fourth consecutive year that UNM had multiple All-Americans.
Sophie Connor finished next for the Lobos, running to 75th place with a time of 20:42.1, with freshman Alex Buck adding a scoring run as she crossed the line in 105th place with a time of 20:52.0.
Natasha Bernal rounded out New Mexico’s scorers, placing 167th with a time of 21:10.3.
“For Sophie, Alex and Natasha, they were out way in the back early and moved and moved and just kept going and never gave up,” Franklin said.
Albuquerque native Kendall Kelly (192nd place, time of 21:23.5) and Kathryn Fluehr (207th, 21:33.9) also ran for New Mexico, which, by rule, only competed seven runners at the meet.
The Lobos started off in 16th place through two kilometers, with Wright and Thackery running 2-5 and the rest of the squad running together in the 140s and 160s.
UNM then moved back a couple spots to 18th through four kilometers, but everyone stayed consistent late, moving up and picking off runners during the final stages of the race. The Lobos sat with 464 points at 4K, cutting 154 points off in the final two kilometers.
Overall, the women tallied 310 points, only three points behind No. 10 San Francisco (sixth place) and just ahead of No. 22 Michigan State (eighth place, 314 points) and No. 24 Eastern Michigan (ninth, 316).
The Lobos also registered a spread of just 57.2 seconds, their best this season.
No. 12 Oregon edged No. 5 Michigan by a single point, 125 to 126 in the low-team-wins scoring format, to claim the national title, while No. 1 Colorado (134 points), No. 2 NC State (223) and No. 4 Stanford (255) rounded out the top five.