ALBUQUERQUE, N.M— The University of New Mexico women’s track and field team has been ranked among the best in the country, having recently been ranked second in the country in the latest team rankings released by FloTrack to go along with a No. 9 ranking in the latest USTFCCCA poll.
The headline leading to the FloTrack rankings said it all: “New Mexico Has a Chance to Win!”
In FloTrack’s NCAA women’s team rankings, the Lobos received 51 points, just four points behind defending champion Southern California for the No. 2 ranking and five points ahead of Florida. SEC schools Arkansas (43 points) and Alabama (34 points) round out the top five in the projected top-20 women’s teams.
UNM is the only non-Power Five school to make the rankings and improved two points and one spot since last week’s ranking.
USTFCCCA’s latest national rating index for outdoor track and field reflected no change in the standings as the Lobos maintained the No. 9 spot with a slight variation from last week’s point total at 163.36 points. In week four’s rankings, UNM broke into the top 10 for the first time in program history to give the Lobos their highest-ever ranking.
Since then, Weini Kelati was named Mountain West Women’s Track Athlete of the Week and the Lobos competed in the Brutus Hamilton Invitational.
Also of note, Kelati and Adva Cohen currently hold the top two times in the NCAA in the 5000-meter after running 15:23.46 and 15:31.01 at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 17, and Ednah Kurgat is third among all NCAA runners in the 10,000-meters, which she ran 32:14.27 at the Stanford Invitational on Mar. 29.
UNM held the top spot in the USTFCCCA’s #EventSquad rankings in the 5000-meters, holding the edge over Arkansas and Colorado with an average time of 15:47.67, 9.08 better than Arkansas’ time and 21.92 seconds better than Colorado.
Up next for UNM is the Payton Jordan Invitational this Thursday, May 2 and the Masked Rider Open on Saturday, May 4 as the Lobos look to qualify more entries for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.