Lobos Host Dr. MLK Jr. Invitational to Kick Off 2025 Indoor Season Jan. 24-25

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico Track & Field resumes the indoor season at home for the first meet of 2025 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational Jan. 24-25, hosted at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

71 UNM athletes will compete across 30 events this weekend, with 30 set to make their collegiate debuts. Among this weekend’s competitors, NCAA Cross Country Runners-Up Habtom Samuel and Pamela Kosgei will both race in the mile, with highly-touted Kenyan semester additions Ishmael Kipkurui and Marion Jepngetich both slated to make their UNM debuts in the same race. This year, the Dr. MLK Jr. Invitational expands to a two-day meet, with events getting underway Friday at 3 p.m. This weekend’s meet is the first of four UNM-hosted indoor meets at the Convention Center in 2025 before hosting Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships for the 10th season in a row Feb. 27 – March 1.

This weekend’s action in Albuquerque will be streamed via paid subscription to FloTrack. Head to GoLobos.com/FollowTrack for all of this week’s live results and streaming links all in one place and follow @UNMLoboXCTF on Instagram and X for live coverage, meet day content and more.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational
Jan. 24-25 | Albuquerque, N.M. | Albuquerque Convention Center

The indoor track at the Albuquerque Convention Center has emerged as one of the preeminent indoor track & field facilities in the nation over the last decade. In concert with the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Albuquerque Convention Center, New Mexico has capitalized on its unique venue and prime training location with the indoor track at the ACC. The facility has hosted 14 Mountain West Indoor Track & Field Championships, nine USATF Indoor National Championships, and five NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships — the first in NCAA history hosted at altitude. The ABCC has also hosted the NJCAA Indoor National Championships (2015) and NCAA Division II Championships (2012).

The most recent surface at the ABCC was unveiled in March 2021 and cost $3 million in total, with renovations that helped solidify the city’s ability to attract and keep hosting national meets that bring the best competition to Albuquerque. Since 2005, 102 indoor track meets have been hosted at the ABCC — 16 being national championship events at either the collegiate or national level — and indoor track has generated over $30 million in revenue for the city of Albuquerque in that span.

The track — a state-of-the-art WSTY Mondo, the same surface used at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo — is a 200-meter, 60-degree banked track with 60-meter straightaways running the entire length of the facility. It also includes men’s and women’s jumping runways and pits, as well as areas for shot put, pole vault and high jump events. The surface of the track is striped with cherry red and turquoise to reflect UNM’s colors and the state color of New Mexico.

In 2024, the ABQ Convention Center saw seven new professional facility records, with two new world records in the men’s and women’s 60 meter hurdles among them. In total, four indoor world records have been recorded at the ABQ Convention Center.

1⃣1⃣ Facility Records and 2⃣ World Records set at the ABQ Convention Center in 2024.

Here’s to even more in ’25! pic.twitter.com/V6BvnqulxD

— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) January 15, 2025

2025 INDOOR SCHEDULE
The Lobos have nine regular-season meets on the docket for the upcoming indoor season, with all four home meets in Albuquerque set to be exclusively live streamed via FloTrack. UNM will also host 2025 Mountain West Indoor Championships in Albuquerque — the 10th season in a row in which MW Championships are hosted at the Albuquerque Convention Center and the 15th time overall.

Albuquerque has become known for hosting elite indoor track competition on its world-class surface at the Convention Center — at the conclusion of last season, 23 times or marks that ranked among the Top 10 in the nation their respective events on the NCAA D-I Indoor Qualifying List were produced in Albuquerque.

All home meet information, including schedules, live results and entries can be found at GoLobos.com/HomeTrack when they are available — follow @UNMLoboXCTF on IG, X and Facebook for meet updates, live coverage, behind-the-scenes content and more.

KOSGEI NAMED HONDA SPORT AWARD FINALIST
New Mexico’s freshman distance superstar Pamela Kosgei has been named as one of four finalists for the Class of 2025 Honda Sport Award for Cross Country, recognizing the top female athlete in the sport for this season.

Alongside Kosgei, Amy Bunnage from Stanford University, Doris Lemngole from the University of Alabama and Hilda Olemomoi from the University of Florida have been announced as the four finalists for the Class of 2025 Honda Sport Award for Cross Country, as revealed today by Chris Voelz, Executive Director of The Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA).

Kosgei concluded the season as national runner-up at NCAA Championships — the only race which she did not win as an individual in her collegiate debut season. She won all four of her first six collegiate 6K races by an average of 26.95 seconds, winning Mountain West Conference and Mountain Region Individual titles as the top performer for a Lobo Women’s XC squad that finished 7th in the nation when all was said and done In addition to finishing as an All-American, Kosgei earned Mountain West Athlete & Freshman of the Year honors and USTFCCCA Mountain Region Athlete of the Year honors.

The Honda Sport Award has been presented annually by the CWSA for the past 49 years, recognizing the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and symbolizing “the best of the best in collegiate athletics.” The recipient of the sport award will become a finalist for the prestigious Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the 2025 Honda Cup, which will be presented during the live broadcast of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Presented by Honda on CBS Sports Network in June.

The finalists were selected based on their standout performances at the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championship. The Honda Sport Award for Cross Country winner will be announced early next week after voting by administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. Each NCAA member institution has a vote.

Kosgei is the fourth Lobo women’s runner to be named as a finalist for the award along with Courtney Frerichs (2015), Ednah Kurgat (2017) and Weini Kelati (2018, 2019). Kurgat was voted as the overall winner in 2017, with Kelati winning the award in 2019 after finishing second in voting in 2018.