No. 6 Men's & No. 10 Women's XC Lace up for NCAA Mountain Regionals Friday

Two weeks after a dominant sweep of Mountain West team and individual titles at conference championships, New Mexico Men’s and Women’s Cross Country look to put the finishing touches on their NCAA Championship resumes at NCAA Mountain Regional Championships this Friday in Reno, Nev. with both Lobos squads ranked in the Top 10 nationally for a second consecutive poll and racing for a chance at an automatic NCAA Championship bid with a top-two finish.

The No. 6 UNM men are looking to build off a third-place finish and 97-point score at Regionals last season that stand as their best since 2013, with the No. 10 Lobo women focused on getting back to the top of the team score after a streak of 12 consecutive top-two finishes was snapped by a seventh-place finish in 2023. 2023 Mountain Region Champion and Regional Athlete of the Year Habtom Samuel aims to become the first man from New Mexico to win back-to-back individual Mountain Region titles in her first full-length 10K race this season after winning both of his last two races in dominant fashion at Wisconsin Pre-Nationals and MW Championships — on the women’s side, Pamela Kosgei will make her NCAA postseason debut as a heavy favorite after winning each of her first three races as an individual.

In the Lobos’ most recent competition at MW Championships on Nov. 1, UNM swept both the men’s and women’s team titles, with Samuel named MW Men’s Athlete of the Year, Pamela Kosgei named MW Women’s Freshman & Athlete of the Year, Vincent Chirchir named MW Men’s Freshman of the Year and UNM Head Coach Darren Gauson named MW Men’s & Women’s Coach of the Year.

Friday’s racing kicks off with the Women’s 6K at 12 p.m. MT before the Men’s 10K at 1 p.m., with award ceremonies following the conclusion of both races. Friday’s races will be streamed via the MW Network, with live results available via GoLobos.com/XCResults. Follow @UNMLoboXCTF on IG and X for raceday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.

NCAA Mountain Regional Championships
Friday, Nov. 15 | Reno, Nev. | Washoe Golf Course.
12 p.m. Women’s 6K / 1 p.m. Men’s 10K

THE FIELD
Friday’s race features five women’s teams and six men’s teams ranked among the Top 30 in the nation in the USTFCCCA’s Week 5 poll, with a combined seven Top-10 teams in the mix. On the women’s side, No. 1 BYU, No. 4 Northern Arizona and No. 9 Utah all enter this week ranked above the No. 10 Lobos — the Cougars also enter as No. 1 nationally among men’s teams ahead of the No. 6 Lobo men, with No. 8 Northern Arizona also remaining in the Top 10.

RANKINGS UPDATE
• The UNM men remained at No. 6 – their highest weekly rank since 2013 – with the women dropping two spots to No. 10 in the nation in last week’s USTFCCCA Coaches’ Poll.
• The men are just one spot shy of matching their highest ranking in program history — they ranked No. 5 in the nation in the final poll of the 2010 season. The Lobo women dropped despite winning a MW Championship behind three top-10 finishers.
• This is only the third season and seventh poll in program history in which both squads are ranked in the Top 10 at the same time — the two teams were both ranked No. 9 in the Week 5 poll in 2013 and both cracked the Top 10 in Weeks 4, 5 and 8 of 2010 before both being ranked No. 5 in 2010’s final poll ahead of NCAA Championships.
• The reigning Mountain West champions, the UNM men entered the rankings for the first time since 2015 last season, rising as high as No. 13 in the final poll before placing 18th as a team at NCAA Cross Country Championships behind a runner-up individual finish from Mountain Region Athlete of the Year Habtom Samuel.
• 2024 marks the 16th consecutive season in which the Lobo women are ranked in the national polls — they opened the 2023 season at No. 21 and were ranked no lower than fourth in the nation in each of the previous seven preseason polls, winning national team titles in 2015 and 2017 along the way.
• In the USTFCCCA Regional Rankings released on Monday, the UNM men remained No. 2 in the Mountain Region — matching 2010 for their highest regional ranking in program history — with the women ranked No. 4. They finished third and seventh at Mountain Regionals in 2023, respectively.

UNM MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY – WEEK 5 USTFCCCA RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 6
Mountain Region Rank: No. 2

UNM MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY – WEEK 5 USTFCCCA RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 10
Mountain Region Rank: No. 4

REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
The UNM men have won a Mountain Region Championship once – they did so in 2010, with a 45-point total that still stands as the lowest in a Regional race in program history. Their third-place finish with 97 points last year in Lubbock, Texas – with Habtom Samuel, Lukas Kiprop and Evans Kiplagat finishing 1st, 3rd and 4th to lead the way – was the Lobo men’s best team finish and lowest team score since 2013 (3rd, 79 points).

Samuel became only the second man from New Mexico to win an Mountain Region individual title last season when he paced the Lobos with a 28:57.6 finish – Matt Gonzales (2004) is the only other. Samuel was later named USTFCCCA Mountain Region Athlete of the Year for his efforts.

The Lobo women have won six Regional titles and finished in the Top Two 17 times, including a stretch of 12 consecutive top-two finishes and automatic team NCAA Championship bids from 2010-2022 – they most recently won in 2022, with their lowest point total (41) coming in 2018. They’ll be looking to make a statement after a seventh-place finish last year in Lubbock despite an individual runner-up finish and NCAA individual qualification for Nicola Jansen.

A UNM women’s runner has won a Mountain Regional individual title seven times, with Alice Wright (2014, 2016) and Weini Kelati (2018, 2019) both winning twice each.

LAST TIME OUT (MOUNTAIN WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS, 11/1)
New Mexico Men’s and Women’s Cross Country completed its first sweep of the conference team and individual titles since 2012 at Mountain West Championships hosted at Air Force, with Pamela Kosgei becoming the first freshman to win an individual championship and Habtom Samuel becoming the first man to win back-to-back individual titles since 2006.

With 32 points in total in the team score, the UNM women returned to the top of the podium after a 15-year streak of conference titles was snapped last season. The UNM men finished 1-5 as individuals — the first time in conference championship history a men’s team has done so — for a perfect 15-point team score to win back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 2014.

It’s the first time since 2014 and seventh time in program history that UNM has won both the men’s and women’s conference championships in the same year — it’s only the third time they’ve done so with Lobos winning both individual titles (2011, 2012). The Lobos have now won either a Mountain West women’s and/or men’s title in cross country in 17 consecutive seasons, with 24 team championships in that span in total.

Following the completion of both races, Kosgei was named MW Athlete & Freshman of the Year, with Samuel earning his second cross country MW Athlete of the Year honors in as many tries and Vincent Chirchir named Men’s Freshman of the Year for his runner-up finish. Darren Gauson was named both Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year — his second and third conference COTY honors after being named Men’s Coach of the Year in 2023 and the first time a Mountain West coach has won both awards since former UNM Head Coach Joe Franklin did so in 2014.

WOMEN’S 6K CHAMPIONSHIP RECAP
Kosgei took the lead a kilometer into the race and never looked back, outrunning the rest of the field by 47.8 seconds with a 19:36.2 time that anchored a 32-point outing for the Lobo women to finish ahead of Mercy Kirarei (4th, 20.27), Christina Nisoli (6th, 20:43.4 ), Natalie Bitetti (10th, 21:00.1)  and Sophia McDonnell (11th, 21:00.4) and secure the Lobos’ 16th MW women’s cross country championship. The Lobos finished 22 points ahead of second-place Boise State (54 points) –holding the top position in the team score from start to finish — with Colorado State (79 points), Air Force (84 points) and Wyoming (103 points) rounding out the top five in the team score.

First freshman to win a #MWXC title since 2015 ✅
Second-fastest time in conference championship history behind Weini Kelati ✅
pic.twitter.com/a2wz7VXsHK

— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) November 1, 2024

Even at above 7,000 feet in elevation at the Eisenhower Golf Course, Kosgei’s time was the second-fastest in Mountain West Championship history behind former Lobo NCAA Champion and 2024 Olympian Weini Kelati’s 19:11.2 finish in 2019. Kirarei never fell out of the top four as she became the second Lobo to cross the finish line for the first time this season, adding First Team All-MW honors to her MW Indoor 3,000m and 5,000m titles from last semester.

A 42nd-place finisher at the 2023 MW Championship with a time of 21:36.9, Nisoli showed up in a big way with a new personal best (20:43.4) and the first All-MW First Team honors of her career. After finishing fourth overall in the Women’s Open race at Pre-Nats on Oct. 19 as part of the Lobos’ “B” Team with a 20:43.8 finish, she shaved 0.4 off that time on Friday even with an increase of 7,258 feet in elevation from Madison as the Lobos’ third overall finisher.

MEN’S 8K CHAMPIONSHIP RECAP
Up next in the men’s 8K, Samuel finished in 23:20 – the fourth-fastest time in MW Championship history behind his conference record of 22:57.7 in 2023 – and was followed by four Lobos in succession to seal a team title immediately. Vincent Chirchir (23:41.5) finished as runner-up in his first cross country conference championship race to secure Freshman of the Year honors, with fellow freshman Collins Kiprotich (23:52.6) just behind. The trio took the 1-3 spots early at the 1.1-kilometer mark and held them through the duration of the race. Behind them, 2023 Freshman of the Year Evans Kiplagat crossed in 24:09.9 and Lukas Kiprop (24:16.6) moved from seventh to fifth over the final kilometer to complete UNM’s perfect 15-point outing.

𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝟮 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞!@UNMLoboXCTF sophomore Habtom Samuel wins his second straight Men’s 8k title at the 2024 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Cross Country Championships!

First #MWXC men’s runner to win two straight since 2005-06 👏 pic.twitter.com/a0g91cRJs1

— Mountain West (@MountainWest) November 1, 2024

Last season, Samuel, Kiplagat and Kiprop finished 1-2-3 to lead the Lobos to their first conference title since 2014 after the Lobos were picked to finish sixth in the preseason polls — but they needed a strong showing from their fourth and fifth scorers to close the gap late and narrowly beat out second-place Air Force by two points. This time around as preseason favorites to repeat, UNM went 1-2-3-4-5 and left nothing to chance, beating second-place Colorado State (70 points) by 55 points. Behind the Rams, Wyoming (80 points) finished third, Boise State (85 points) finished fourth and Air Force (127 points) finished fifth.

DARREN GAUSON: MOUNTAIN WEST MEN’S & WOMEN’S COACH OF THE YEAR
Following the conclusion of both races, Darren Gauson was named both Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year — his second and third conference COTY honors after being named Men’s Coach of the Year in 2023. It’s also the first time a Mountain West coach has won both awards since former UNM Head Coach Joe Franklin did so in 2014.

With the honor, Gauson joins an exclusive club. Only five other coaches in Mountain West cross country history have been named Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year in the same year — Franklin (2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), BYU’s Patrick Shane (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006), UNM’s Matt Henry (2005), Wyoming’s Randy Cole (2004) and CSU’s Del Hessel (2000).

LOBOS SWEEP NATIONAL, CONFERENCE ATHLETE OF THE WEEK HONORS
After New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei and Habtom Samuel both smashed the Zimmer Championship Course records en route to a sweep of the individual titles at Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on Saturday, the duo were named USTFCCCA Co-National Athletes of the Week, the organization announced Monday.

Kosgei and Samuel outpaced the previous records on this year’s NCAA Championship course by 18.1 and 34.4 seconds respectively to anchor a sixth-place finish for the then-No. 17 Women and a fourth-place finish for the then-No. 8 Men in the final team score against a field that included a combined 39 teams ranked in the prior week’s national polls.

The honors were the seventh and eighth National Athlete of the Week honors for UNM Cross Country athletes in program history and the first since Weini Kelati won the award twice in the 2019 season. It was also only the fourth time since the award’s conception in 2013 that both winners were from the same school – Samuel is the first male athlete from UNM to win it.

A day later, Samuel and Kosgei were named MW Athlete and Freshman/Athlete of the Week, with Collins Kiprotich winning MW Freshman of the Week for his 26th-place finish at Pre-Nats to complete another Lobo awards sweep.

2023-24 SEASON RECAP
In Gauson’s first year at the helm, the UNM men found a level of success they hadn’t enjoyed in nearly a decade, winning a Mountain West title and punching their ticket to NCAA Championships as a team for the first time since 2014 and finishing the season 18th in the nation. Alongside NCAA runner-up and Mountain Region Champion Habtom Samuel, Evans Kiplagat (33rd) also finished as an All-American, with Nicola Jansen (36th) also earning All-American honors as UNM’s lone representative in the women’s race.

All three will be returning to lead a retooled roster that seeks to get both teams to NCAA’s in the same year for the first time since that 2014 season.

“Before I got here, Coach Franklin’s [men’s] team was sixth in the conference and hadn’t made the meet for a number of years,” Gauson told CITIUSMAG last week. “We were able to bring in a few athletes with Thomas Termote, Lukas Kiprop, Evans Kiplagat, and obviously Habtom as a freshman and launched straight into 18th in year one.

“We were hoping for a little bit more,” Gauson said. “I think we were sitting in tenth and then Lukas had a little bit of a knee problem … [he] fell back quite a lot into the hundreds which really killed our team score.”