UNM to Run in NCAA Mountain Regional Friday
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Step one of the postseason is complete with The University of New Mexico cross country teams having competed at the Mountain West Championships at the start of November, but for all intents and purposes, it is Friday’s NCAA Mountain Region Championship that will be the make or break for the Lobos’ season.
With only the top two teams from each of the nine regions throughout the country automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championships, it is a crucial test for the Cherry and Silver.
In addition, four of the top individuals who do not finish on a qualifying team will also advance to the national championships. The remaining 13 at-large teams and two additional individuals will be selected by the NCAA DI Cross Country Subcommittee, bringing a total of 255 participants that will run at the championships.
The men’s and women’s fields will have 19 teams competing for the NCAA regional title.
Held in Salt Lake City, Utah and the Rose Park Golf Course, the Lobo women will run at 11 a.m. MT on a 6K course with the men’s 10K to follow at noon. Utah will be hosting the event for the first time since 2010, where the UNM men and women both took the team title with 45 points and 53 points, respectively.
Lining up for the women will be Adva Cohen, Lydia Hallam, Alexandra Harris, Juanita Johnson, Weini Kelati, Ednah Kurgat, Hannah Nuttall and Brenda Rosales-Coria. On the men’s side, the Lobos will go with Nehemiah Cionelo, Toby Cooke, Reece Donihi, William Fuller, Jared Garcia, Harrison Smith III and Max Wharton.
Entering the race ranked No. 10 nationally, the Lobo women face five ranked opponents including three in the top 10 in No. 3 BYU, No. 8 Colorado and No. 9 Utah. Furthermore, UNM will compete against five Mountain West schools in No. 15 Air Force, Nevada, Colorado State, Utah State and Wyoming.
For the men, they will run against the top three teams in the nation in No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 2 BYU and No. 3 Colorado as well as No. 20 Utah State and No. 25 Colorado State. Other MW schools at the regional are Wyoming, Air Force and Nevada.
Last season, the Lobo women won the team title for the first time since 2011 with 41 team points, the lowest point total for the Lobos at the regionals in program history. Colorado finished second in the team standings with 53 points to earn the other automatic bid. In the men’s race, the Lobo men finished 10th in the team standings with 256 points, and was led by Garcia’s 27th-place finish.
Held in Provo, Utah, the Lobos were led by Kelati’s time of 19:15.0, winning the individual title over Kurgat by 16.7 seconds. UNM had six Lobos in the top-16 finishers en route to the team win.
Additionally, the Lobo women have won the last four individual regional titles and have finished first or second in the team standings the last nine years.
Both the men and women are coming off of successful MW Championships, with the women earning their 12th consecutive championship behind 31 team points. The Lobos were led by Kelati’s championship run of 19:11.2 in Logan, Utah, and had the top-finishers with Kurgat’s runner-up result; placed three in the top five with Hannah Nuttall’s fifth-place finish, four in the top 10 with Gracelyn Larkin’s 10th-place result and five in the top 13 with Harris’ 13th-place finish. The men had two finishers in the top 12 with Cooke and Fuller 11th and 12th, respectively, to earn All-Mountain West Cross Country Second Team.
Live results will be available HERE and there will be a FloTrack stream HERE, but will require a subscription.