Lobo Men Finish Fifth, Women Sixth at MW Outdoor Championships
CLOVIS, Calif. – Habtom Samuel added 1500m and 5,000m Mountain West individual titles to an already expansive trophy case to highlight New Mexico Track & Field’s final day at MW Outdoor Championships on Saturday, with five other Lobos finishing on the podium as competition concluded.
The UNM men finished fifth in the team score with 83 points, with the women finishing sixth with 60. 72 of the men’s points and 19 of the women’s points were scored on the final day, with Samuel’s big wins producing 20 of those points for the men.
Already a conference champion in Cross Country and Indoor Track (3,000m; 5,000m) Samuel remained undefeated in Mountain West Championship races with two more convincing event wins on Saturday. The first was out of his usual wheelhouse – typically a 5K and 10K specialist, he won the 1500m with a 3:44.04 that was 3.84 seconds faster than the time he put down in prelims, overtaking Boise State’s Ollie Newman over the final stretch with a 55.69-second final lap. Behind him, Samuel Field went at Newman as well over the final lap but couldn’t get past him, scoring six points with a third-place finish and near-PR of 3:44.50.
Habtom Samuel wins the men’s 1500 meter run with a time of 3:44.04 🏆 @UNMLoboXCTF #AtThePeak l #MWOTF l #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/sN3NofHc2P
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) May 12, 2024
In the same race, freshman Kane Shields scored another point, finishing eighth (3:48.73).
A few hours later, Samuel surged from the middle of the pack halfway through the men’s 5,000m final and held off a late push from Colorado State’s Lars Mitchel over the final 200 meters to become a five-time Mountain West champ, finishing ahead of teammate Vincent Chirchir (8th, 14:09.13). The Eritrean-born freshman ran the first 3,000 meters in 8:30.95 and closed the next 2,000 in 5:20.70, capped off by a 58.03-second final lap.
Habtom Samuel wins the Men's 5000m Run with a time of 13:51.65 🥇 @UNMLoboXCTF #AtThePeak l #MWOTF l #GoLobos pic.twitter.com/tJgAqtBQ9T
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) May 12, 2024
Brodie Young finished as a MW Runner-Up in the 400m dash with a season-best time of 46.07 –faster than any of his splits last weekend at World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas – with Rebecca Grieve finishing ninth on the women’s side with a 54.86. He posted the fastest split of the men’s 4×400 relay squad (47.66) that finished fourth (3:11.74).
Senior Victor Akhalu closed out his final MW Championships with a third-place finish in the 100m (10.31) and finished seventh in the 200m (21.56) to yield eight points for the Lobos, also running a leg of the men’s 4x100m relay squad that finished fifth with a time to score four more.
On the women’s side, Lauren Fowler finished ninth in the 100m dash with a 11.72 time.
In the men’s pole vault, freshman Kyle Hatler scored four points with a fifth-place finish, clearing 4.72m on his best attempt. Fabian Biondina did the same in the men’s triple jump with a 14.99m jump – a new collegiate best for the Dutch national that would rank in the Top 60 in the West Region on the current NCAA list.
Dylan Burrows earned his first conference podium finish with a third-place run in the 800m, crossing in 1:49.64 – just .25 seconds off of first-place finisher Ryan Birkmeier of Colorado State (1.49.39). Burrows finished with the second-fastest second lap of the race (55.47) to put himself in position late, with teammate Matthew Larkin (1:53.59) finishing behind him in ninth.
Up next in the 400 hurdles, Levente Soos ran a 52.02 time to finish fifth – 0.7 seconds off of the podium – and get four points.
Nicola Jansen secured her second Runner-Up honors of the weekend in the women’s 5,000m, leading much of the race before another spirited late surge from Colorado State’s Sarah Carter knocked her down to second. She crossed in 16:10.07 to score six points, with Hanna Bruckmayer finishing sixth (16:34.65) to yield three more ahead of Mercy Kirarei (15th, 16:54.12).
UNM’s men’s and women’s 4x400m relay squads closed out the night with fourth- and seventh-place finishes, respectively – the women finished in 3:42.58, with the men crossing in 3:11.74 in the final event of the night.
UP NEXT
With conference championships now in the rear-view mirror, the Lobos turn their attention to the First Round of the NCAA postseason. University of Kentucky will host the East Preliminary in Lexington and Arkansas will host the West Preliminary in Fayetteville, with both set for May 22-25.
Participants for the 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships first rounds are determined by the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Committee. For each individual event contested at both of the NCAA Regional Preliminary Round sites, the Top 48 declared student-athletes and Top 24 relay squads in their respective regions will be accepted into the competition, with the Top 12 in each Prelim advancing to the NCAA Outdoor National Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. June 5-8.