Lobo T&F Splits Up Between Boston, Seattle, ABQ for this Weekend's Competition

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico Track & Field is set to compete in three meets across the country this weekend, hosting the UNM Team Open in Albuquerque (Jan. 31-Feb. 1) while distance contingents head to sea level for the Washington Invitational in Seattle, Wash. (Jan. 31-Feb. 1) and at the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston, Mass. (Feb. 1).

The action in Boston and Albuquerque will be available to stream via paid subscription to FloTrack, with the UW Invitational streamed via RunnerSpace +. 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.

New Mexico Team Open
Jan. 31-Feb. 1 | Albuquerque, N.M. | Albuquerque Convention Center

John Thomas Terrier Classic
Feb. 1 | Boston, Mass. | BU Track & Tennis Center

Washington Invitational
Jan. 31-Feb. 1| Seattle, Wash. | Dempsey Indoor

LAST TIME OUT (Dr. MLK Jr. Invitational, 1/24-25)

• Through two meets so far this indoor season, UNM athletes have broken six program records and recorded 14 All-Time Top 10 entries in their respective events.
• Last weekend at the Dr. MLK Jr. Invitational, Hannah Taylor broke the 600m program record with a 1:32.38 clocking on Day 1 before Brodie Young (32.79) and Rebecca Grieve (37.81) set new 300m records and Collins Kiprotich and Pamela Kosgei ran the fastest unconverted mile times at altitude in collegiate history on Day 2. 
• In total, UNM athletes notched 17 new personal bests and 11 new all-time Top 10 performances last weekend in addition to five program records.
• Young’s 32.79 time stands as the eighth-fastest in the nation so far this season as well as the Top 25 in collegiate history. It’s also a Scottish record and only 0.07 seconds shy of a British record.
• Grieve matched the second-fastest 200m time in history with a 24.02 conversion and Young moved up to No. 3 on the men’s 200m all-time list with a 21.30 clocking. They both rank among the Top 100 in the nation in the 200m heading into this week.
• Kiprotich and Kosgei swept MW Athlete & Freshman of the Week awards for the second time this indoor season this week for their efforts — Kiprotich and Samuel have now combined for three of only eight sub-four minute miles ran at altitude in collegiate history.
• In her first two collegiate indoor races, Kosgei has broken both the 5,000m and mile records – her 5,000m time ranks No. 4 on the NCAA all-time list.
• In the women’s 60 hurdles, freshmen Pietra Campbell Simões (8.69/8.71@) and Adryana Shelby (8.71/8.73@) ran the seventh- and eighth-fastest times in program history in their hurdles debuts on Saturday.

THE ROAD TO NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

• The top 16 qualifying individual men’s, individual women’s and combined events and top 12 relays (DMR and 4×4) at the conclusion of the indoor season — after scratches — will be selected to the 2025 DI indoor track and field championships, held March 14-15 in Virginia Beach, Va.
• Heading into this weekend, four Lobos sit in qualifying position — Pamela Kosgei ranks No. 3 in the nation in the 5,000m (15:00.36) and No. 4 in the Mile (4:30.68 @), while Collins Kiprotich (3:53.41 @), Habtom Samuel (3:54.37 @) and Lukas Kiprop (3:55.58 @) rank No. 3, No. 6 and No. 14 in the nation in the Mile thanks to their elevation-converted performances last Saturday.
• UNM athletes have produced 28 marks (11 for men, 17 for women) that rank among the Top 100 in the nation heading into this weekend across 10 events (M & W 200m, M & W Mile, M & W 3,000m, M & W 5,000m, W Long Jump, M Triple Jump).
• Last season, Evans Kiplagat (5,000m) and Habtom Samuel (3,000m / 5,000m) represented UNM at NCAA Indoor Championships in Boston, with Samuel earning two First Team All-American honors and Kiplagat finishing as a Second Team All-American.

RANKINGS CHECK-IN
In the first USTFCCCA TFRI rankings of the indoor season released this week, the UNM men and women both clocked in at No. 29 in the nation — the women rank No. 4 in the Mountain Region and No. 2 in the Mountain West Conference, with the men at No. 8 and No. 5, respectively.

In this week’s #EventSquad rankings, the Lobos cracked the Top 3 in the nation in three distance events — UNM ranks No. 2 in the nation in the men’s mile and women’s 5,000m and No. 3 in the women’s mile, with a total of seven times from five athletes that rank among the Top 25 in the nation currently in the Mile, 3,000m and 5,000m.

🔝3⃣ in the nation in three distance events in the first @USTFCCCA #EventSquad rankings of the indoor season!#GoLobos pic.twitter.com/XmbNPCx49t

— New Mexico XC/T&F (@UNMLoboXCTF) January 29, 2025

UNM MEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 1 USTFCCCA RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 29
Mountain Region Rank: No. 8
Mountain West Conference Rank: No. 5

UNM WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 1 USTFCCCA RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 29
Mountain Region Rank: No. 4
Mountain West Conference Rank: No. 2

UNM MEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 1 USTFCCCA #EVENTSQUAD RANKINGS (Top 100)
Men’s Mile – No. 2
Men’s 200m – No. 89

UNM WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 1 USTFCCCA #EVENTSQUAD RANKINGS (Top 100)
Women’s 200m – No. 44
Women’s Mile – No. 3
Women’s 3,000m – No. 35
Women’s 5,000m – No. 2
Women’s Pole Vault – No. 64

BIG-TIME SEMESTER ADDITIONS
The Lobos got even deeper on the distance side over the semester break with the addition of three U20 Kenyan distance stars with international competition experience in Marion Jepngetich, Ishmael Kipkurui and Matthew Kosgei for the indoor season. Kipkurui — a U20 World Cross Country Champion in 2023 and fourth-place finisher in the 5,000m at U20 Worlds last year — opened up his collegiate career with a 3:58.16 mile conversion on Saturday that moved him to No. 8 on the UNM all-time list. Marion Jepngetich and Matthew Kosgei — both U20 World silver medalists last year in the 3,000m and Steeplechase, respectively — will make their collegiate debuts this weekend at sea level in Seattle and Boston.

Other notable additions include French middle distance standouts Joshua Abraham (4:01.40 converted mile on 1/25, No. 75 in NCAA D-I) and Alice Seguin as well as Brazilian hurdler Pietra Campbell Simões, who put down the seventh-fastest 60 hurdles time in program history (8.69/8.71@) in her event debut.

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.

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