Lobo Men's and Women's XC Punch Tickets to NCAA Championships
For the first time in a decade and only the seventh time in program history, both New Mexico Men’s and Women’s Cross Country have qualified for NCAA Championships after the No. 10 Lobo women were announced as one of 13 at-large selections on Saturday afternoon.
It’s the 16th NCAA Championship appearance for the women in the last 17 seasons — with two NCAA team titles in that span — after their streak of 15 consecutive team qualifications was snapped last season. It’ll also be their 11th time entering NCAA Championships ranked among the Top 10 teams in the nation. They opened this week overwhelmingly projected to take an at-large spot regardless of their performance at Regionals but outperformed their No. 4 regional rank with a third-place finish anyways — anchored by an individual Mountain Region title from Pamela Kosgei — to leave little doubt they’d be included.
IT’S OFFICIAL: For the first time since 2014…
Both Lobo squads are ππ’ππ‘π πππ‘πππ‘πβΌοΈ πΊπ
See you next week, Madison πΊ pic.twitter.com/h6oiIP7jUV
β New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) November 16, 2024
They will join the No. 6 UNM men — who secured an automatic qualification with a second-place team finish at Mountain Regional Championships yesterday — as both teams will head to the big race ranked among the Top 10 in the nation for the first time since 2010, when they both were ranked No. 5 in the nation in the final regular season national poll. They’ll be looking to improve upon their 18th-place team finish last season in their first appearance since that 2014 season. After going 1-2-3-4-5 to repeat as MW Champions and putting up an impressive second-place showing behind No. 1 BYU in a tight race yesterday, they’ll be led by two-time MW Athlete of the Year and 2023 NCAA Runner-Up Habtom Samuel, who finished as runner-up at Regionals yesterday.
FOLLOW THE RACES
This year’s NCAA Championship race will be held next Saturday at Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wisc. and will be broadcast via ESPN with live results available via GoLobos.com/XCResults. Follow @UNMLoboXCTF on IG and X for raceday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.
