Lobos Lace Up for MW Indoor Championships in ABQ Feb. 27-March 1

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico Track & Field hosts this year’s Mountain West Indoor Championships at the Albuquerque Convention Center this weekend, with the Lobos in the hunt for their first team conference title since 2014.

The Lobo women enter as the No. 1-ranked team in the conference per the USTFCCCA’s conference TFRI rankings, their third week in a row as the No. 1 team in the MW and first time entering conference championships as projected team favorites in over a decade. The UNM men are also among the frontrunners for a team title, sitting at No. 2 in the conference the last two weeks.

This weekend’s action kicks off tomorrow, with UNM athletes competing in the men’s and women’s 5,000m and distance medley relays. Head to GoLobos.com/FollowTrack for all of this weekend’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.

MW Indoor Championships
Feb. 27 – March 1 | Albuquerque, N.M. | ABQ Convention Center

BRODIE GOES BACK-TO-BACK
Brodie Young took home his second MW Athlete of the Week honors in as many weeks after improving on his UNM program record and Scottish national record in the 400, putting down a 45.66 raw time (45.77 converted) that ranks No. 9 in the nation — a near-lock for NCAA Indoor Championship qualification. It would be his first qualification as an individual and the first by a UNM 400m runner since Jarrin Solomon in 2009.

Young put some distance between himself and the previous Scottish record of 45.98 with an improvement of three-tenths of a second. The junior had only recorded three sub-46 performances across the first of his collegiate career – all outdoors – but has now done so twice in his first two 400m races of the 2025 season, with Saturday’s time ranking No. 4 on the UK all-time list. His previous indoor best heading into this season was a 46.54 he put down at the Don Kirby Elite meet as a freshman in 2023.

LOU-ANNE BREAKS THROUGH
Lou-Anne Pouzancre Hoyer also put down another impressive personal best in the 400m last Saturday, breaking the program record with a 52.39 (52.50) clocking to finish third in the women’s invitational sections of the Don Kirby Elite. Just 24 hours earlier in Seattle, she was the 400 leg of a women’s DMR squad that broke the program record before catching a flight back to Albuquerque that evening.

With Saturday’s record-breaking performance, Pouzancre Hoyer has now run a collegiate personal best in each of her last five 400m races in a Lobo uniform dating back to exactly 12 months ago at the 2024 Don Kirby Elite Invitational:

• 52.39 – Don Kirby Elite (2/15/25)
• 52.80 – UNM Collegiate Classic (2/8/25)
• 53.23 – MW Indoor Championships Final (2/24/24)
• 53.81 – MW Indoor Championships Prelim (2/23/24)
• 53.84 – Don Kirby Elite (2/10/24)

ALL-TIME PERFORMANCES / SEASON RECAP
So far this indoor season, UNM athletes have broken 9 program records and recorded 23 All-Time Top 10 entries. Among the notables:

• Habtom Samuel beat his own program records in the 5,000m (BU Terrier Invite) and 3,000m (UW Husky Classic) in his last two races – those performances rank No. 4 and No. 16 among collegiate performances indoors all-time.
• In her first three collegiate indoor races, Pamela Kosgei has now broken the UNM 5,000m, Mile and 3,000m records, all previously held by 2024 Olympian Weini Kelati – her 5,000m record set in Boston in December ranks No. 4 on the NCAA all-time list and her 3,000m performance ranks No. 9 on the all-conditions list due to UW’s track surface.
• UNM’s women’s 4x400m and distance medley relays both broke the UNM program records – the 4×400 put down a 3:36.88 converted time on Day Two of the UNM Collegiate Classic and the Women’s DMR finished sixth in a race that featured the five fastest DMR performances in collegiate history for a time that was nearly four seconds faster than the previous UNM best (10:53.48).
• Brodie Young shattered a nearly 15-year-old UNM school record held by Olympian Jarrin Solomon with a 45.96 clocking – beating a nearly 40-year old Scottish national record in the process – and then improved again the following weekend with a 45.66 raw time (45.77 converted) to all but lock up a spot at NCAA Indoor Championships. It would be his first qualification as an individual and the first by a UNM 400m runner since Jarrin Solomon in 2009.

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, five Lobos sit in qualifying position across six events:
  • Brodie Young moved up qualifying position with his second 400m PR in as many weeks, slotting in at No. 9 in the nation (45.77). He remains the only non-P4 athlete in the Top 16.
  • Pamela Kosgei ranks No. 7 in the nation in the 3,000m (8:44.62) and No. 4 in the 5,000m (15:00.36). She also contributed to the Lobos’ No. 9-ranked Distance Medley Relay (10:53.48) at the Husky Classic.
  • Collins Kiprotich (3:53.41 @) ranks No. 12 in the nation in the Mile thanks to his altitude-converted performance from the MLK Invite (Jan. 25).
  • Habtom Samuel‘s 3,000m PR from the Husky Classic (7:39.39) places him at No. 7 in the nation, while his 13:04.92 5,000m PR from Boston remains No. 2 nationally—the fastest mark among current D-I athletes.
  • Ishmael Kipkurui also moved up in the 3,000m, ranking No. 10 in the nation (7:40.06), and holds a No. 18 national ranking in the 5,000m (13:22.03).
• UNM athletes have produced 39 marks (17 for men, 22 for women) that rank among the Top 100 in the nation heading into this weekend across 12 events (M & W 200m, M & W 400m, M & W 800m, M & W Mile, M & W 3,000m, M & W 5,000m, W Long Jump, W 4x400m, W Distance Medley Relay).
• 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 fourth USTFCCCA TFRI rankings of the indoor season released this week, the UNM men and women both ranked among the Top 30 for the fourth week in a row, with the men dropping one spot to No. 16 and the women dropping three spots to No. 30. The women dropped one spot to No. 5 in the Mountain Region while coming in at No. 1 in the Mountain West Conference for the fourth week in a row, with the men staying at No. 3 in the region and No. 2 in the conference, respectively.

In this week’s #EventSquad rankings, the Lobos cracked the Top 10 in the nation in five distance events — UNM ranks No. 3 in the nation in the men’s mile, No. 2 in the men’s 3,000m, No. 10 in the women’s mile,  No. 5 in the women’s 3,000m and No. 2 in the women’s 5,000m. UNM athletes have produced a total of nine times from five athletes that rank among the Top 25 in the nation currently in the Mile, 3,000m and 5,000m.

UNM MEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 5 USTFCCCA TFRI RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 16 (-1)
Mountain Region Rank: No. 3 (–)
Mountain West Conference Rank: No. 2 (–)

UNM WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 5 USTFCCCA TFRI RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 30 (-3)
Mountain Region Rank: No. 5 (-1)
Mountain West Conference Rank: No. 1 (–)

UNM MEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 5 USTFCCCA #EVENTSQUAD RANKINGS (Top 100 only)
Men’s 200m – No. 94
Men’s 400m – No. 91
Men’s 800m – No. 27
Men’s Mile – No. 4
Men’s 3,000m – No. 5
Men’s 5,000m – No. 2

UNM WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 5 USTFCCCA #EVENTSQUAD RANKINGS (Top 100)
Women’s 200m – No. 42
Women’s 400m – No. 11
Women’s 800m – No. 44
Women’s Mile – No. 12
Women’s 3,000m – No. 7
Women’s 5,000m – No. 2
Women’s Pole Vault – No. 29

SAMUEL NAMED TO THE BOWERMAN MID-INDOOR WATCH LIST; KOSGEI RECEIVING VOTES
Following a loud performance in Boston last weekend that saw him break his own 5,000m UNM and Mountain West record with a 13:04.92 clocking that moved him up to No. 4 on the NCAA All-Time list, New Mexico sophomore Habtom Samuel was named to The Bowerman Mid-Indoor Watch List.

After opening the year on The Bowerman Preseason Watch List, Samuel has competed in two indoor races — he put down a 3:54.37 converted mile time (No. 13 in NCAA D-I) in his season debut in Albuquerque at the Dr. MLK Jr. Invitational (Jan. 25) before running the fastest 5,000m race — indoor or outdoor — in UNM and Mountain West history last Saturday in Boston.

On the women’s Mid-Indoor list released Wednesday, Lobo freshman Pamela Kosgei received votes for the first time after breaking her third UNM indoor program record in as many races on Friday in Seattle. Kosgei is the first women’s distance runner to receive votes for the preseason watch list as a freshman — Stanford’s Grant Fisher (2016) and Oregon’s Edward Cheserek (2014) are the only male distance runners to have held the same distinction.

In 2024, Samuel — then a true freshman — became just the second man from New Mexico to be named as a semifinalist, joining two-time semifinalist Josh Kerr (2017, 2018). Samuel swept the indoor 3,000m and 5,000m Mountain West titles and finished as a First Team All-American in both events at Indoor Nationals before winning the 10,000m and finishing sixth in the 5,000m at Outdoor Nationals to conclude the season with four First Team All-American finishes on the oval in just his freshman year alone — five counting cross country.

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 — also joined the Lobos at the semester, with Jepngetich making her collegiate debut in Seattle last weekend (4:46.23 Mile; 9:36.41 3,000m) and Kosgei opening with a 4:07.09 (4:07.01 converted) mile as an unattached runner at the UNM Team Open.

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.

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.

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.

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