No. 5 Men's & No. 10 Women's XC Set for NCAA Championships on Saturday

A resurgent 2024 season for New Mexico Men’s and Women’s Cross Country is set to reach its climax at NCAA Championships on Saturday in Madison, Wisc., with both squads ranked among the Top 10 nationally and looking to make good on lofty expectations one more time.

Fresh off a second-place finish and automatic team qualification last Friday at Mountain Regional Championships, the Lobo men have matched a program-best with a No. 5 national ranking and set their sights on the highest team finish at NCAA Championships in history. They’re led by Habtom Samuel — who finished as an NCAA XC Runner-Up in 2023 and racked up four All-American honors and a 10,000m national championship in the time since — and four more point-scorers that all packed into the individual Top 30 in Reno last week as the Lobos went toe-to-toe with No. 1 BYU.

The No. 10 UNM women are back at NCAA Championships in a big way after missing out as a team last season to snap a 15-year streak of appearances. They’ve finished in the Top 10 nationally in their last 13 team appearances at nationals.

This will be the Lobos’ second time running at Zimmer Championship Course this season after both put down strong performances at Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on Oct. 19. Behind individual wins and impressive course records from Samuel and Kosgei, the men finished fourth in the team score and the women finished sixth to outpace 15 ranked teams each — a result that moved the men to No. 6 and the women to No. 8 in the national rankings the following Monday and solidified both Samuel and Kosgei as favorites to win individual titles this weekend.

Friday’s racing kicks off with the Women’s 6K at 8:20 a.m. MT before the Men’s 10K at 9:10 a.m., with award ceremonies following the conclusion of both races. Saturday’s races will be broadcast uninterrupted via ESPNU and available online 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.

NCAA Cross Country Championships
Saturday, Nov. 23 | Madison, Wisc. | Zimmer Championship Course
8:20 a.m. Women’s 6K / 9:10 a.m. Men’s 10K

ZIMMER CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE: THE STAGE IS SET
In the early 2000’s with a significant donation from Badger alum Thomas Zimmer, the University of Wisconsin built a permanent standalone cross country course consisting of rolling hills and switchbacks – to help spectators enjoy the competition – paired with lush, green grass suitable for fast times. Over a decade later, the course has become known for the prestigious Nuttycombe Invitational in mid-October — but this year, since the Wisconsin course will also be the NCAA Championship course, Nuttycombe was moved to earlier in the fall with this weekend slotted for Pre-Nationals.
Annually, at least half of the USTFCCCA ranked teams attend Nuttycombe in mid-October – in large part, the meet has become almost necessary to secure NCAA at-large qualifying points. In 2021, there were 19 ranked women’s teams out of the 36 teams in attendance with 18 of the 34 men’s teams nationally ranked. In each season that it was held, no less than 10 of the teams selected to the NCAA Championship competed at the Nuttycombe earlier in the year.
The UNM women have won Nuttycombe four times, first in 2015 and 2017 – years the Lobos went on to win an NCAA Championship – as well as 2021 and 2022, when they went on to finish third and second, respectively.

LAST TIME AT ZIMMER (WISCONSIN PRE-NATIONALS, 10/28)
Pamela Kosgei and Habtom Samuel both obliterated the Zimmer Championship Course records en route to runaway individual wins as the No. 8 Lobo men and No. 17 women both outpaced 15 ranked teams each to finish fourth and sixth in the team score at Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on Saturday morning.

On this year’s NCAA Championship course, Kosgei took over down the stretch to shake off Florida’s Hilda Olemomoi and dip under the 19-minute mark with a 18:59.1 clocking – 18.1 seconds faster than the previous course record set by Parker Valby in 2023 (19:17.2). UNM was one of only four teams that placed three or more runners in the Top 50 overall thanks to 37th- and 38th-place finishes from Natalie Bitetti (20:06.8) and Mercy Kirarei (20:07.5), with Klara Dess (62nd, 20:19.3) and Sophia McDonnell (100th, 20:37.3) closing the gap to finish with 236 points in the team score — good for sixth against a field that included 10 teams ranked above UNM.

Kosgei hung with the front pack before turning on the jets down the stretch, closing the final 2,000 meters in 6:10.0 — the fastest single split of the race — to go from seventh to first, securing her second individual win in as many races.

“I said, ‘Let me push it, maybe I’ll win — because I say that may the best win,” said Kosgei post-race. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to win today, but I’m glad I did.”

Up next in the men’s 8K, Samuel replicated the feat, shaving more than 30 seconds off Parker Wolfe’s previous record of 23:04 with a 22:34.6 time – 6.8 seconds ahead of second-place finisher and 2023 NCAA Champion Graham Blanks — to complete the individual title sweep for UNM. Behind him, Vincent Chirchir (23:06.5) finished 11th, Collins Kiprotich (23:15.7) finished 26th, Evans Kiplagat finished 63rd and Rikus Van Niekerk finished 65th to anchor a 166-point outing that placed the men fourth in the team score.

In similar fashion to Kosgei, Samuel stayed patient and controlled through the first 6,000 meters before bringing down the hammer late, closing with a 5:31.2 split over the final 2K as he put distance between himself and the next four runners that crossed the finish line within two seconds of each other. Samuel was the first of nine runners to finish under the previous record.

In total, 10 UNM women ran new 6K personal bests and five men ran new 8K bests — all of the Lobo women’s top six runners and the Top Three men ran new PR’s.

RANKINGS UPDATE
• The UNM men matched their highest ranking in program history after moving up to No. 5 and the women remained at No. 10 in the USTFCCCA’s final polls released on Monday — the third consecutive week with both teams ranked among the Top 10.
• It’s only the second time in program history that the UNM men have cracked the Top Five, when both UNM men’s and women’s squads came in at No. 5 in the final poll of the 2010 season. It’s also only the second time in history that both teams enter NCAA Championships ranked among the Top 10 in the nation and the first since that 2010 season.
• Should the Lobo men hold to their ranking at NCAA Championships, it’d be their best finish in program history. They’ve only finished in the Top 10 in the team score at nationals twice with a 9th-place finish in 2004 and an 8th-place finish in 2009.
• In the women’s poll, the Lobos held steady at No. 10 even after beating out a No. 9 Utah team to finish third at Mountain Regionals on Saturday behind an individual title from Pamela Kosgei. The true freshman remains undefeated in collegiate races with an average margin of victory of 26.95 seconds.
• In the last 10 seasons in which the Lobo women have secured a team qualification to NCAA Championships, they’ve entered ranked among the top 10 nationally. It’s their 16th team appearance in the last 17 seasons.
• This is only the ninth weekly USTFCCCA poll in program history in which both squads are ranked in the Top 10 at the same time — three of which are the last three polls this season. Prior to this year, 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.

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

UNM WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY – WEEK 5 USTFCCCA RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 10
Mountain Region Finish: No. 3

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
The UNM men will be making their 12th appearance as a team at NCAA Championships and second in a row after finishing 18th in the team score in 2023. Their highest finish in program history came in 2009, when they finished tied for 8th place with 350 points.

In total, 16 men from New Mexico have finished among the Top 40 to earn All-American status at NCAA Championships. After an individual runner-up finish in 2023, Habtom Samuel aims to become only the fourth Lobo men’s runner to finish as an XC All-American multiple times – Matt Gonzales (2001, 2004), Luke Caldwell (2012-2013) and Abdirizak Ibrahim (2020-21) are the only other athletes to accomplish that feat.

Gonzales and Samuel are the only two men from New Mexico to finish as individual runners-up at nationals – UNM has never had a male NCAA individual cross country champion.

The Lobo Women are making their 16th appearance in the last 17 seasons – and their 11th in which they enter as a Top-10 team in the national polls – after a 15-year streak of team qualifications was snapped last fall. UNM won women’s NCAA Team Championships in 2015 and 2017 and finished in the Top 10 for 13 consecutive seasons from 2010-2022, most recently finishing as NCAA team runners-up in 2022 with a 140-point total.

UNM women’s runners have racked up 40 All-American finishes in those appearances, with Ednah Kurgat (2017) and Weini Kelati (2019) both winning NCAA Individual Championships. The Lobos have finished with multiple All-Americans in each of the last 11 NCAA Championship races in which the UNM women have qualified as a team and have finished with at least one in 12 of their last 13 appearances.

LAST TIME OUT (NCAA MOUNTAIN REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS, 11/15)
Pamela Kosgei remained undefeated in her dominant freshman season with an individual title and Habtom Samuel narrowly finished as individual runner-up on the men’s side to anchor third- and second-place team finishes for New Mexico Women’s and Men’s Cross Country at NCAA Mountain Regionals Friday afternoon at Washoe County Golf Course, with the Lobo men securing an automatic qualifying bid to NCAA Championships with their best finish and lowest point total (61 points) since 2010.

In total, six Lobos finished in the Top 25 of their respective races to take home All-Mountain Region honors — Mercy Kirarei (7th) ran a new personal best to finish behind Kosgei as both secured NCAA individual qualifications, with Samuel, Vincent Chirchir (7th), Evans Kiplagat (10th) and Collins Kiprotich (16th) all earning All-Region status. For Samuel and Kiplagat, it’s their second All-Region finishes after the duo finished first and fifth in 2023.

The women’s 111-point score marked a 67-point improvement from their seventh-place finish in 2023 that snapped a streak of 12 consecutive automatic bids to NCAA Championships. With today’s results, they’re in as solid of a position as they can be to join the Lobo men in Madison next week.

In wintry conditions with snow on the ground, Kosgei surged ahead of runner-up Juliet Cherubet (Texas Tech) over the final stretch to win by 13.7 seconds after keeping pace through the first 4.7 kilometers, finishing with a 19:30.9 time to become the eighth woman from New Mexico to win a Mountain Region title and first since Weini Kelati in 2019. In the men’s race, Samuel hung back with Chirchir, Kiplagat and Kiprotich to help them stay packed into the Top 10 through the first six kilometers before challenging TTU’s Solomon Kipchoge over the final stretch and coming just 3.3 seconds short of repeating as Regional Champion with a 28:59.2 finish.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝🐺🏃‍♂️

Lobo Men punch their 🎟️ to NCAA Championships next week in Madison with a second-place team finish in Reno!#GoLobos pic.twitter.com/eySjvmXwDa

— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) November 15, 2024

WOMEN’S 6K RECAP
Kosgei held steady behind Texas Tech’s Juliet Cherubet from the onset of the race up until the final kilometer, overtaking her with a 3:50.2 final split to win comfortably by 13.7 seconds after trailing by 0.4 seconds with 1.3K remaining. Through her first four collegiate races, Kosgei has yet to be beaten, winning by an average of 26.95 seconds.

A regional championship in the snow! ❄️@UNMLoboXCTF‘s Pamela Kosgei takes home the Mountain Region title with a big win.#NCAAXC pic.twitter.com/Zt3OTcuf5L

— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) November 15, 2024

The UNM women held the top spot in the team score through the first 2,200m meters before BYU and Northern Arizona overtook them at the 3.8K mark — they held on to the No. 3 spot the rest of the way even as fourth-place Utah shed 16 points through the remainder of the race thanks to a seventh-place finish from Mercy Kirarei (19:57.7) — who finished under the 20-minute mark for the first time in her career for a new personal best — ahead of Christina Nisoli (29th, 20:28.6), Klara Dess (35th, 20:36.9) and Natalie Bitetti (39th, 20:43.9) to wrap up the team score with 111 points. Sophia McDonnell rounded things out just behind Bitetti in 41st (20:48.9) to provide quality insurance at the No. 6 spot.
Nisoli’s 20:28.6 finish as UNM’s third point-scorer marks her third consecutive new 6K personal best — in her last race, she shaved half a second off a personal best from Wisconsin Pre-Nationals with a 20:48.3 time despite an increase of more than 7,000 feet in altitude. This time, she improved again by nearly 20 seconds despite the cold and snowy conditions in Reno.

MEN’S 10K RECAP
In the first full-length 10K race of the year for the Lobo men, they held off No. 8 Northern Arizona for the second automatic qualifying spot to solidify their No. 2 regional ranking, with Samuel’s runner-up finish ( 28:59.2 ) leading the way ahead of three teammates that all packed into the Top 20 — Vincent Chirchir (7th, 29:29.0), Evans Kiplagat (10th, 29:34.8) and Collins Kiprotich (16th, 29:40.3). Rikus Van Niekerk shed a point over the final kilometer to thread the needle and close the team score at 61 points with a 26th-place finish (29:54.0) — an improvement of 17.9 seconds from his previous 10K best — to finish one man shy of All-Region status, with Lukas Kiprop (35th, 30:01.1) and Corne de Fouw (71st, 31:07.2) finishing behind him to ensure all seven Lobo men’s competitors cracked the Top 75.

Habtom finishes as Mountain Region Runner-Up (28:59.2) after an epic battle with Texas Tech’s Solomon Kipchoge down the stretch!

Lobo men finish second behind BYU with a 61-point score and secure an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA Championships in Madison! pic.twitter.com/yAmM9xisj9

— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) November 15, 2024

UNM took the top spot in the team score with 49 points at the 3.4K mark and held it up until the final kilometer, but No. 1 BYU dropped 56 points over the last 6.6 kilometers to rise from fourth in the team score and overtake the Lobos down the back stretch with 52 points in total. The No. 8 Lumberjacks of NAU shed 48 points in the same span, but it wasn’t enough to drop the Lobos late.

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 the duo were named USTFCCCA Co-National Athletes of the Week. 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 in an interview before the first race of the season. “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.”

“Champions Wear Turquoise”

It was 2011 when UNM first donned turquoise at NCAA Championships, an idea hatched by former UNM Head Coach Joe Franklin at the time. In their first iteration, the uniforms were originally white and dip-dyed by hand — three times, to be exact — in order to reach the proper turquoise color. The Lobos didn’t get officially printed turquoise uniforms for nationals until after they won their first women’s NCAA team Championship in 2015.

More than a decade later, wearing turquoise has become both a privilege and a tradition that honors the state of New Mexico that the Lobos represent. Only UNM athletes that reach the NCAA Championship race in cross country or qualify for NCAA Indoor or Outdoor Championships wear turquoise — the color is meant to be earned and worn with pride.