Women’s Results | Men’s Results
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — In the program’s first major competition of the 2017 season, the New Mexico women’s cross country team placed second overall at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, while the Lobo men’s team placed 10th.
Behind four runners placing in the top eight, the third-ranked Lobo women logged their eighth-straight top-four performance at the Burke Golf Course, finishing just four points behind team champion and top-ranked Colorado.
The New Mexico men also posted a promising showing, finishing in the top 10 with a 10th-place showing.
“For a lot of teams, it’s their second or third race of the year,” UNM head coach Joe Franklin said. “For us, it’s really our first. So our season just got started today and now we have four weeks until the conference championships at home, six weeks until the regional and seven until the national championship.”
After racing a handful of runners at the Lobo Invitational in early September — before race results could count toward qualifying for the NCAA Championships — UNM finally started to make moves for the postseason on Friday at Notre Dame.
Heading into the week, the Notre Dame Invitational shaped up to be one of the top regular-season contests of the season, with six women’s teams and four men’s teams ranked in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association coaches’ poll
The meet certainly lived up to its billing, with UNM returning from Indiana with some momentum.
The Lobo women, who have placed top-10 at the NCAA Championships each of the last seven years for the nation’s longest active streak, got a tremendous start on their NCAA resume, earning wins over four other ranked teams.
Despite yielding the team title to Colorado, the UNM women showed that they have the athletes to contend as the season progresses, placing four runners in the top eight.
Ednah Kurgat, in her first race in a Lobo uniform, led the way over the five-kilometer course, charging to the individual win in 16 minutes, 1.8 seconds. Her time marked the fastest time in the history of the women’s race at the Notre Dame Invitational.
Kurgat, who sat out last fall after transferring from Liberty, also claimed the women’s first individual win at the meet since Charlotte Arter won it in 2014.
“She waited for over a year to race,” Franklin said of Kurgat, “so for her to come out and what she did in her first is quite outstanding.”
However, Kurgat wasn’t alone at the front, as Alice Wright added a runner-up finish of 16:12.0. It’s Wright’s second-straight second-place finish and her fourth-straight top-10 finish at the meet.
Freshman Weini Kelati and transfer Charlotte Prouse also scored for the UNM women in their first races for the Lobos, crossing the line in sixth and eighth place, respectively. Kelati clocked a time of 16:23.9, while Prouse crossed the line in 16:33.0.
Kieran Casey came in as New Mexico’s final scorer, finishing 34th in 17:04.5.
Alondra Negrón Texidor (37th place, time of 17:09.8) and Alex Buck (38th, 17:10.0) were close behind, with Sophie Eckel (75th, 17:45.2) and Sarah Laverty (83rd, 17:47.8) rounding out the Lobos’ runners.
“The women ran an outstanding race,” Franklin said. “To have Ednah and Alice run under the previous course record is outstanding. It was very fast from the beginning. And then we have people that come up big like Weini, Charlotte, Kieran, Alondra and Alex. The group ran great and did a very good job.”
As a team, New Mexico registered 51 points in the women’s race, just behind Colorado’s tally of 47 points in the low-score-wins format. It’s the fewest points the Lobo women have scored at the meet since winning it with 29 points in 2015, the same year they won the NCAA Championship.
In the women’s open race, Kendall Kelly placed second overall, running 18:01.2.
On the men’s side, the Lobos returned to the top 10 at the meet, coming in right at 10th. It’s the team best finish since a ninth-place performance in 2015 and a significant improvement over last season’s youth-driven 23rd-place finish.
“They ran really well,” Franklin said. “The progress the last three years has been very good. They keep better and better and now they have a chance to make the national championship.”
Senior Alexander Palm spearheaded the men’s efforts over the five-mile race, posting a seventh-place time of 23:58.8. It’s the Lobos’ best finish in the race since 2013, when Luke Caldwell took second place. But Palm’s time was the faster of the two, and the fastest since Adam Bitchell ran 23:35.8 in 2014.
Josh Kerr, a middle-distance standout on the track, showed his cross-country chops, taking 18th in 24:09.1. After redshirting last fall, Kerr made a strong return to the grass, posting a strong improvement over his 71st-place finish from 2015.
Rounding out the men’s scoring were Jonny Glen (65th, 24:45.5), Jacob Simonsen (92nd, 25:05.8) and Linton Taylor (112th, 25:19.1). As a team, the Lobos finished 279 points.
Taylor Potter (154th, 26;13.2) and Michael Wilson (159th, 26:26.5) also ran the men.
No. 13 Southern Utah won the men’s race with 72 points, upsetting No. 4 Colorado (101 points). Mountain West rival Air Force came in third with 154 points.
The Lobos return to action in two weeks, when they’ll travel to the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in their final meet before the championship season.
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