Lobo Men's 10K Squad Opens at No. 1 in USTFCCCA Event Rankings

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico Track & Field was ranked No. 35 on the men’s side and 96th on the women’s side in this week’s USTFCCCA National TFRI rankings released Monday, with UNM’s men’s 10,000m squad ranked No. 1 in the nation in the USTFCCCA’s #EventSquad rankings.

On the men’s side, Habtom Samuel’s second-ranked time of 26:53.84 from Sound Running’s The TEN on March 16 — the second-fastest outdoor 10,000m ever ran by an NCAA athlete — anchors three Lobos that rank among the Top 10 in the nation in that event along with fellow freshmen Evans Kiplagat (28:08.26) and Vincent Chirchir (28:19.01), who both lead the MW in that event. Samuel’s time from March 16 counts towards UNM’s TFRI ranking, but as it is not an NCAA-sanctioned meet, it does not count toward NCAA Qualifying or conference rankings. Nonetheless, he could run 64.74 seconds slower than his PR in any collegiate 10K race this outdoor season and still be faster than the top time in the nation last season from Stanford’s Charlie Hicks (27:57.47).

UNM’s Men’s 10,000m squad holds a 1:52:20 total time between its top four runners and 28:04.97 average — more than 30 seconds faster than second-ranked Arkansas (28:37.44).  Kiplagat and Chirchir sit at No. 4 and No. 13 in the nation, respectively, and their times rank third and sixth in the event on UNM’s outdoor all-time list. Kiplagat’s time is only 2.16 seconds behind Ibrahim Kivina-Juma’s previous program record of 28:06.1 that stood since 1984. Thomas Termote, who put down a massive PR on Friday of more than 70.53 seconds faster than his 31:09.3 cross country 10K best set at Mountain Regionals, contributed as the fourth leg of UNM’s total time with a 28:58.77 finish.

Two sprinters also contributed to UNM’s No. 35 ranking, with Gal Arad’s 20.69 200m time ranking No. 32 in the nation and Brodie Young’s meet record performance at the Bobcat Invitational in the 400m (46.15) ranking 17th.

Mercy Kirarei ranks No. 28 in the nation in the 1500m (4:18.47) and No. 30 in the 5,000m (16:00.59), the latter of which was a 14.3-second PR on Friday night in Stanford. Kirarei ranks second in the MW in the 1500m and her 5,000m time is more than 22 seconds faster than the No. 2 time in the league (16:22.81).

Sophia McDonnell ranks No. 16 in the 3K steeplechase after putting down a 10:27.58 time in Stanford last weekend, with Nicola Jansen ranking No. 15 in the 10,000m after a 32:53.18 time in her debut in that event on Friday night — Jansen’s time is the fastest in the Mountain West, while McDonnell’s ranks fourth in the conference.

UP NEXT
New Mexico Track & Field gets a week off from competition before returning to California April 10-13 for the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific University and the Beach Invitational at Long Beach State. Streaming for the Bryan Clay Invitational will be available via FloTrack, with live results for both meets available via GoLobos.com/TrackResults. Follow @UNMLoboXCTF on IG, X and Facebook for meet day updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.