Gracelyn Larkin Named MW Cross Country Women’s Athlete of the Week

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— University of New Mexico cross country runner Gracelyn Larkin has been selected as the Mountain West Cross Country Women’s Athlete of the Week, as announced by the MW on Monday.

It is the first weekly honor for Larkin and the first for the Lobos this season.

The redshirt-junior earned the honor after finishing as the top Lobo finisher in ninth at 16:20.4 at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Sept. 30. With the Lobos running against No. 1 NC State, No. 8 Alabama and No. 10 Notre Dame, Larkin moved up from 39th at the mile marker to 17th at the 4000-meter mark before finishing ninth to pace the Lobos to a second-place team finish.

As a team, UNM was third in the team standings at the mile point of the race and while still third at the 4000-meter point, shaved off 51 points before closing the race in second with 68 points, dropping another 25 points in the last 1000-meters.

The Lobos return to competition again on Friday, Oct. 14 at the Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wis. The women’s 6K will begin at 10:20 a.m. MT followed by the men’s 8K at 11 a.m. MT.