Five Lobos Qualify for NCAA Indoor T&F Championships in Six Events
With accepted entries finalized, five athletes – four men and one woman – will represent New Mexico Track & Field across six events at NCAA Indoor Championships next weekend at Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Va.
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 — are be selected to the 2025 DI indoor track and field championships, held March 14-15 in Virginia Beach, Va. 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.
Habtom Samuel is the lone repeat qualifier for NCAA Indoors, declaring in both the 3,000m and 5,000m again after finishing seventh and fourth at last year’s championships in Boston, Mass. He’ll be on the hunt for a second NCAA individual title after coming just shy of a cross country title in November – his 3K time ranks No. 10 in the nation and he enters with the fastest 5K time in the nation heading into this week.
With the eighth-fastest time in the nation thanks to a converted 45.57 clocking from Saturday at MW Indoor Championships that stands as both a MW overall and championship record, Brodie Young is the first men’s sprinter to qualify for NCAA Indoor Championships since Jarrin Solomon, whose program record Young broke earlier in the season.
Ishmael Kipkurui – who pushed Samuel to the finish line in both the 5,000m and 3,000m at MW Indoor Championships last weekend to finish as runner-up in both – also double-qualified for the 3K and 5K in his first season as a Lobo. Already a U23 world cross country champion, Kipkurui joined UNM’s team at the semester and has since ran the second-fastest 3,000m and 5,000m times in program history – those performances rank No. 12 and No. 7 in the nation heading into next week.
Collins Kiprotich’s 3:53.41 converted time in the mile – the fastest raw time ever ran at elevation in collegiate history – held through the Top 16 in the nation for the entirety of the indoor season to secure him a spot at NCAA’s. He’ll be the only Lobo contesting the mile next weekend.
UNM’s lone woman qualifier, true freshman Pamela Kosgei also double-qualified in both the women’s 3K and 5K after breaking Weini Kelati’s UNM program records in both distances this season. She ranks No. 7 in the nation in the 3,000m and No. 3 in the 5,000m – both performances that rank among the Top 25 collegiate performances all-time.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Friday, March 14
Women’s 5k: 2:40 PM MT – Pamela Kosgei
Men’s 400m: 5:30 PM MT – Brodie Young
Men’s 5k: 6:10 PM MT – Habtom Samuel, Ishmael Kipkurui
Saturday, March 15
Women’s 3k: 2 PM MT – Pamela Kosgei
Men’s Mile: 4 PM MT – Collins Kiprotich
Men’s 3k: 5 PM MT – Habtom Samuel, Ishmael Kipkurui