ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico cross country teams head to South Bend, Ind. for the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, Oct. 1, to compete against several nationally ranked teams.
Ranked third in the latest USTFCCCA national poll released Tuesday, the Lobo women will go head-to-head with 12 ranked teams, including four in the top-10. The Lobo men will compete against 11 ranked teams, including two ranked in the top-10.
There will be three divisions for each gender with a Blue Division, a Gold Division, and an Open Division. The races for the women will have a distance of 5,000-meters (~3 miles) while the men will run five miles. Both the Lobo men and women were selected for the Blue Division with the women to lead off the meet at 8:30 a.m. MT and the men to follow at 9:15 a.m. Additional athletes will be competing in the women’s Open Division at 10:00 a.m.
The Lobos lineup for the women’s blue race includes Adva Cohen, Andrea Engesaeth, Abbe Goldstein, Emma Heckel, Gracelyn Larkin, Amelia Mazza-Downie, Hannah Miller, and Stefanie Parsons. UNM will run Nehemiah Cionelo, Reece Donihi, Abdirizak Ibrahim, Iolo Hughes, Matthew Larkin, Harrison Smith III, and Awet Yohannes in the men’s race.
The women competing in the Open Division are Samree Dishon, Juanita Johnson, Annamaria Kostarellis, Elise Thorner, and Aliandrea Upshaw.
Among the 24 teams scheduled to run in the women’s Blue Division at the Burke Golf Course at the University of Notre Dame are nationally ranked No. 1 NC State, No. 6 Alabama, No. 7 Minnesota, No. 8 Washington, No. 15 Ole Miss, No. 17 Michigan, No. 18 Florida State, No. 19 Notre Dame, No. 21 Indiana, No. 23 Illinois, No. 29 Furman and Princeton.
The men will run in the Blue Division against 23 other schools, including 11 ranked schools in No 2. Notre Dame, No. 10 Butler, No. 15 Alabama, No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 19 Furman, No. 25 Michigan, No. 26 Indiana, No. 28 Weber State, No. 29 Florida State, and No. 30 Purdue.
Friday’s race will mark the 12th time New Mexico will compete at Notre Dame, having made an appearance at the race from 2008-2017 and 2019. The women have twice won the team race and have had two individual winners, while the highest finish for the men was second in 2010 with one individual winner.
In their last race at Notre Dame in 2019, the Lobo women placed seventh in the Blue Division team standings with 181 points. However, the Lobos had the two finishes in the top five, with Weini Kelati winning in 16:01.61 and Ednah Kurgat in fifth with a 16:23.81.
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