Habtom Samuel Set to Compete at NCAA Outdoor Championships June 5-7
New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel will look to put the finishing touches on one of the most dominant debut seasons in program history at the 102nd NCAA Outdoor Championships this week in Eugene, Ore., where he’ll compete in the 10,000m Final on Wednesday and the 5,000m Final on Friday.
Already a three-time First Team All-American in cross country and indoor track, Samuel enters as an overwhelming favorite in the 10,000m next week and is projected to garner another First Team All-American finish in the 5,000m. He posted the fastest individual time at NCAA West Region Preliminaries in both distances two weeks ago and ranks No. 3 in the 10,000m (28:03.30) and No. 2 in the 5,000m (13:13.34) on the final NCAA Outdoor Qualifying List. He’s now won four straight (non-prelim) races after sweeping the 1500m and 5,000m titles at MW Outdoor Championships two weeks prior, with his only loss in a finals race this season being by five-hundredths of a second against the No. 1 5K time in the nation from Oklahoma State’s Bryan Musau.
If Samuel were to emerge victorious in either race, he’d be the first UNM Outdoor National Champion since Weini Kelati won the women’s 10,000m in 2019, and the first man to do it since Josh Kerr won the 1500m in 2017. He’d also be the first male UNM athlete to win an NCAA Outdoor 10,000m or 5,000m title.
Samuel’s 10,000m personal best of 26:53.84 at Sound Running’s THE TEN on March 16 — a non-NCAA sanctioned meet in which he was one of just two collegians in a field of 30 — ranks No. 2 in NCAA history and is 57.42 seconds faster than the top collegiate time in the nation (27:51.26) from North Carolina’s Alex Phillip. His 5,000m personal best (13:13.34) was just five hundredths of a second shy of Musau (13:13.29) who edged him at the finish line of the nation’s fastest 5,000m race this season at the Bryan Clay Invitational on April 11.
Also racing in the New Mexico uniform in Oregon this weekend will be highly-touted recruit Pamela Kosgei, who will compete for the Olympic standard in the 3K Steeplechase at the non-NCAA Portland Track Festival on Saturday for her Lobo debut without using outdoor eligibility. Saturday’s racing will take place at Mt. Hood Community College in Portland.
Samuel is set to race in the 10,000m final at 8:08 p.m. (MT) on Wednesday before returning for Friday’s 5,000m final at 8:55 p.m. MT. Women’s 3K steeplechase racing down in Portland gets underway at 9:35 p.m. MT.
This week’s action in Eugene will be broadcast via ESPN2, with streaming available via ESPN+ as well – head to GoLobos.com/TrackResults for all of this week’s live results and streaming links all in one place. Follow @UNMLoboXCTF on Instagram and X for live coverage, meet day content and more.
2024 NCAA OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
June 5-8 | Eugene, Ore. | Hayward Field
SAMUEL MAKES BOWERMAN WATCH LIST DEBUT
Habtom Samuel was named to The Bowerman Watch List last week for the first time in his career, the USTFCCCA announced last Thursday.
First awarded in 2009, The Bowerman is bestowed to collegiate track & field’s top male and female athlete for the year, regardless of discipline. The Bowerman Advisory Board, and ultimately, The Bowerman Voters, are instructed to consider performances inclusively from the collegiate indoor track & field and outdoor track & field seasons only.
Samuel is just the second man from New Mexico to be named to the watch list, joining two-time semifinalist Josh Kerr (2017, 2018). Samuel swept the indoor 3,000m and 5,000m Mountain West titles and finished as a First Team All-American in both events at Indoor Nationals — he enters next week’s competition ranked No. 3 in the nation in the 10,000m and No. 2 in the 5,000m after adding two conference outdoor titles in the 1500m and 5,000m three weeks ago.
Award semifinalists will be announced on Tuesday, June 18 (women) and Thursday, June 20 (men), with finalists slated to be announced on Monday, June 24 (women) and Tuesday, June 25 (men).
LAST TIME AROUND (NCAA WEST REGION PRELIMINARIES, MAY 22-25)
Samuel made it a clean sweep of the 10,000m and 5,000m with first-place finishes in both semifinals in Fayetteville, ensuring he will compete for an individual national title in both at NCAA Outdoor Championships and further solidifying his status as one of the favorites to win it all at Hayward. The only athlete — male or female — to finish as the top runner in both the 5,000m and 10,000m Semifinals that weekend, Samuel’s times in both races were the fastest of all competitors in either Region.In the 5,000m Semis, Samuel posted the fastest final 400m of the day (1:00.18) to hold off a late challenge from Kansas’ Chandler Gibbens, who pulled ahead with less than a lap to go. The true freshman finished in 13:44.50 — 6.49 seconds faster than the top time in the East Region from Furman’s Dylan Schubert (13:50.99).
2⃣ for 2⃣‼️Habtom Samuel has posted the top time of NCAA West Region Prelims in both the 10,000m on Wednesday and the 5,000m today to punch his ticket to @NCAATrackField Outdoor Championships in both!#GoLobos pic.twitter.com/OHgDPK3bB2— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) May 25, 2024
Two days earlier, Samuel finished first in the 10,000m semifinals in similar fasion, crossing in 28:26.91 – 33.68 seconds faster than the raw time he put down in his last 10,000m race at the Don Kirby Tailwind Open at elevation in Albuquerque (29:00.59) and 39.65 seconds faster than the top time in the East Region from Alabama’s Victor Kiprop (29:06.56).
On March 16, Samuel finished fifth with the second-fastest 10,000m in NCAA history in a field loaded with pros and Olympians at Sound Running’s THE TEN on Saturday, putting down a scorching 26:53.49 time that secured him the Olympic-qualifying standard and essentially punches his ticket to Paris for the 2024 Olympics this summer. In the process, he also shattered a UNM program record that had stood since 1984 (Ibrahim Kivina-Juma, 28:06.1).Already a three-time First Team All-American (XC, 5,000m Indoor, 3,000m Indoor) before his first collegiate outdoor season, Samuel was one of two collegians to finish under a previous record held by Sam Chelanga (27:08.49) that has stood since 2010 along with Northern Arizona’s Nico Young (26:52.72). The duo were the only two NCAA athletes in a field of more than 30 in the invite-only race designed to produce Olympic qualifying times and world records.
Since the 2023-24 season, Samuel has racked up accomplishments at a pace unseen by any true freshman in UNM history. He’ll be looking to add two more All-American finishes (5,000m, 10,000m) at Hayward to an already extensive list of achievements:
- 2023 Mountain West Athlete of the Year (XC)
- NCAA Runner of the Week (XC)
- USTFCCCA Mountain Region Athlete of the Year (XC)
- Mountain West Champion (XC)
- NCAA Mountain Region Champion (XC)
- NCAA Championship Runner-Up (XC)
- Mountain West Championship Record Holder (XC)
- UNM Program Record Holder – 5,000m, 3,000m, Mile (Indoor)
- Fastest collegiate mile ever ran at the Albuquerque Convention Center (3:59.12)
- 11th-Fastest 5,000m time in NCAA History (Indoor)
- Mountain West Championship Performer of the Meet (Indoor)
- Mountain West Championship Record Holder – 5,000m, 3,000m (Indoor)
- Mountain West Champion – 5,000m, 3,000m (Indoor)
- USTFCCCA First Team All-American – 5,000m, 3,000m (Indoor)
- No. 2 10,000m time in NCAA History (Outdoor)
- 2024 Mountain West Indoor Track Athlete of the Year
- Mountain West Champion — 1500m, 5,000m (Outdoor)
HAYWARD FIELD
One of the sport of track & field’s most high-profile venues, Hayward Field will host its 13th NCAA Outdoor Championships dating back to 1962 this weekend — Hayward has also served as a host for eight USATF Outdoor Championships and seven U.S. Olympic Trials. The facility is named after track coach Bill Hayward (1868–1947), who ran the Ducks’ program from 1904 to 1947. Originally built in 1919 and most recently renovated in 2020, it is one of only five International Association of Athletics Federations Class 1 certified tracks in the United States (along with Hutsell-Rosen Track, Icahn Stadium, John McDonnell Field, and Rock Chalk Park). The renovation demolished both current grandstands and established a new stadium around the track with a capacity of 12,650, expandable to nearly 25,000 for major events.
2024 PORTLAND TRACK FESTIVAL
June 8 | Portland, Ore. | Mt. Hood Community College
DISTANCE SUPERSTAR PAMELA KOSGEI OFFICIALLY A LOBO
New Mexico Cross Country / Track & Field Head Coach Darren Gauson made one of the most high-profile signings in program history official on May 6 when he announced the addition of Kenyan distance superstar Pamela Kosgei to the Lobos’ roster for next season on Monday, bolstering UNM’s distance crew with one of the most accomplished distance athletes in the world under the age of 20.
Kosgei – a third-place individual finisher at the U20 World Cross Country Championships in 2023 and a U20 African champion and senior Kenyan national champ in the 3,000m steeplechase – is the sister of world marathon record holder Brigid Kosgei, who won the 2018 and 2019 Chicago Marathons, the 2019 and 2020 London Marathons and the 2021 Tokyo Marathon before earning silver in the event at the Tokyo Olympics. But she’s already made a name for herself as one of Kenya’s rising distance stars ever since her bronze finish at World Junior XC last February.
“We’re so excited to add one of the best steeple /cross country athletes in the world,” Gauson said. “Pamela is an elite athlete with a history of amazing performances on the world stage – she can make a massive difference for us.”
Kosgei’s personal best in the 3,000m steeplechase (9:35.25) would rank No. 3 in the nation this season on the NCAA Outdoor Performance list – that performance was at 5,000-feet elevation and would put her within a second of No. 1 in the nation with elevation conversions (9:22). Her cross country 10K best of 31:40 would rank No. 2 among the nation’s fastest collegiate 10,000m races on the outdoor oval this year. She currently ranks No. 52 in the world in cross country and No. 76 in the world in the steeplechase.
Already on campus in Albuquerque, the 19-year-old will compete for UNM as a freshman in the fall in cross country and immediately boost the Lobo women’s hopes of returning to the NCAA National Championship race as a team after narrowly missing out for the first time since 2007. This weekend will be her first time racing in a Lobo uniform, but it won’t be at an NCAA-sanctioned meet.