UNM Women's Cross Country Picked MW Preseason Favorite

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— For the 11th consecutive year, The University of New Mexico women’s cross country team has been voted as the Mountain West preseason favorite, earning 10 first-place votes and a total of 100 points.

The Lobos enter the season having won the last 14 conference championships and have produced five of the last six individual conference champions.

UNM finished with the maximum amount of points possible as coaches couldn’t vote for their own team. Utah State was picked to finish second in the preseason poll with 86 points and Colorado State rounded out the top three with 83 points.

On the men’s side, the Lobos were picked to finish sixth with 27 points and return their top runner in All-American Abdirizak Ibrahim, who finished fifth in last year’s MW Championship race and advanced to the NCAA Championship where he finished 33rd.

The women are coming off of a third-place finish at the NCAA Championship, extending their top-10 team finish streak to 12 straight seasons as well as continuing the longest current top-10 streak in the country in cross country. At the MW Championship, the women’s team scored 15 points for the third perfect score in conference championship history and became the only team in Mountain West history to finish the championships with the top seven runners all being from the same school.

New Mexico is again stacked on the women’s side, returning six of the top seven finishers from the 2021 MW championship team, including the 2021 individual MW champion Amelia Mazza-Downie, Emma Heckel, Gracelyn Larkin, Abbe Goldstein and Ali Upshaw, who finished second through fifth, respectively.

The Lobos officially open their season with the Lobo Invitational on Sept. 10 and will have four meets before the Mountain West Conference Championship, set for Oct. 28 in Laramie, Wyoming. Among the meets on the schedule for UNM this season are the Joe Piane Invitational (Sept. 30), hosted by Notre Dame, and the Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational (Oct. 14), hosted by the University of Wisconsin.

Following the MW Championships, UNM will host the NCAA Mountain Regional, set for Nov. 11, with the NCAA Championships set for Nov. 19 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Women’s Cross Country Preseason Poll
Rk. Team                       Points
1.New Mexico (10)   100
2.Utah State                     86
3.Colorado State             83
4.Air Force                       71
5.Boise State (1)             68
6.Wyoming                     55
7.Nevada                         47
8.San Diego State         32
9.Fresno State               26
10.San José State         24
11.UNLV                         13

Men’s Cross Country Preseason Poll
Rk. Team                     Points
1.Air Force (7)            63
2.Boise State (1)        51
3.Colorado State       49
3.Utah State (1 )        49
5.Wyoming                 37
6.New Mexico       27
7.Nevada                    25
8.Fresno State          15
9.San José State        8