Lobo XC / T&F Lands Kenyan Star Ishmael Kipkurui for 2025 Track Season
After a groundbreaking fall that saw both Lobo squads finish the season among the nation’s Top 10 at NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first time in program history, New Mexico’s distance squad gets even deeper with the addition of Kenyan superstar Ishmael Kipkurui for the upcoming semester.
Kipkurui – a 19-year-old who graduated high school this past November and will be eligible immediately to compete for the Lobos — was a U20 World Cross Country Champion in 2023 before earning the call-up to the Kenyan senior national team for the upcoming 2026 World XC Championships with a sixth-place finish at Kenyan XC Championships and a seventh-place finish at Kenyan Olympic trials in the 5,000m this year.
He’ll immediately contend among the nation’s elite collegiate distance runners over the indoor and outdoor track season with 3,000m and 5,000m personal bests that would rank No. 1 in the nation among last season’s top collegiate times.
“Thrilled for the addition of Ishmael,” said UNM Head Coach Darren Gauson. “One of the best recruits in the world right now has chosen to come to University of New Mexico and add to our great history of elite distance runners – that’s a big statement about what we’re building here with this program.”
“The opportunity to train along Habtom Samuel and follow in the footsteps of recent signee Pamela Kosgei are big reasons why becoming a Lobo is a great fit for Ishmael … We see him as someone who will ultimately be in the conversation for individual national titles at the end of each season.”
Biggest men’s signing in program history?
We’ll let you decide 😉#GoBos pic.twitter.com/dm0QAvZLSi
— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) December 20, 2024
He’s also the Kenyan U20 record holder in the Two Mile with a 8:09.23 clocking in which he finished second to multi-time Olympian Jakob Ingebrigtsen in 2023 — in that race, he put down a 7:38.06 3,000m split, a time faster than Habtom Samuel’s 7:40.63 UNM program record. Samuel’s 7:40 clocking in and of itself was more than seven seconds faster than the previous UNM school record entering the 2023-24 indoor track season — the UNM 3,000m record had only been broken once in the past decade prior.
His 13:05.47 personal best in the 5,000m, set in June of 2023, is also faster than Samuel’s 13:13.14 outdoor school record set in April. That same year, he competed for the Kenyan senior national team in the World Athletics 5,000m Final in Budapest, leading the pack for a full mile before eventually dropping to 10th in the world.
Kipkurui joins a Lobo men’s distance squad that has blossomed into a podium contender in cross country and sat at No. 1 in the 10,000m in the USTFCCCA’s #EventSquad rankings all season long in the 2024 outdoor season. Under Head Coach Darren Gauson’s tenure, the Lobo men went from receiving zero votes and being picked to finish sixth in the Mountain West to start the 2023 season to ninth in the nation at the 2024 NCAA Championships, with two conference titles along the way. In that span, UNM men’s athletes have recorded seven indoor times that rank among the All-Time Top 10 in the 3,000m and 5,000m and five that cracked the Top 10 in the outdoor 5,000m and 10,000m.
UP NEXT
The Lobos return to action after the semester break on Jan. 18 at the Corky Classic hosted by Texas Tech in Lubbock before hosting the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational Jan. 24-25 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Head to the 2024-25 Track & Field Schedule page or the Home Meet Info for all live results and streaming links all in one place and follow @UNMLoboXCTF on Instagram and X for live coverage, meet day content and more.