New Mexico Track & Field is sending five athletes at NCAA Indoor Championships at the Virginia Beach Sports Center, with four men and one woman set to compete across six events this weekend (March 14-15).
UNM’s four men’s qualifiers are the most since the Lobos sent five men to NCAA Indoor Championships in 2015, with five qualifiers in total across men and women being the most since 2022. In order to qualify, they had to record times that ranked among the Top 16 in the nation in their respective events — after scratches — at the conclusion of the indoor season. 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.
With four qualifiers that all are in the mix for a Top-8 finish or better, the Lobo men could very well surpass the men’s highest point total in program history, an 18-point team performance in 2010. UNM finished tied for fifth in the men’s team score in the third NCAA Indoor National Championships in 1967, with their 8th-place finish in 2010 being the best of the modern era.
The most points the Lobos have ever scored at NCAA Indoor Championships in total across men and women is 27 in 2018, when the women finished tied for 10th with 17 points and the men tied for 21st with 10. UNM has only scored points at NCAA Indoors on both the men’s and women’s sides four times previously (2010, 2012, 2015, 2018).
Habtom Samuel is the Lobos’ lone repeat qualifier for NCAA Indoors, declaring in both the 3,000m and 5,000m again after finishing seventh and fourth in those events respectively 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 individual championship in November – his 3K time ranks No. 10 in the nation and he enters with the fastest 5K time in the field heading into this week. Should he finish among the Top 8 in either race, he’ll be the first man from New Mexico to finish as an indoor First Team All-American in back-to-back years since Josh Kerr won the mile title in 2017 and 2018.
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. In his last three competitions, he’s set a new UNM and Scottish National record in the 400m with a new personal best three times, became the first man from UNM to run a sub-21 200m indoors and won Mountain West titles in the 400m and 4x400m.
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 for his home nation of Kenya, 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 with performances that ranked among the NCAA’s Top 10 all-time. She ranks No. 7 in the nation in the 3,000m and No. 3 in the 5,000m – both times rank among the Top 25 collegiate performances all-time. She scored 30 of UNM’s 136.50 points to win the women’s team title, tripling and winning gold in the 3,000m, Mile and 5,000m.
For Kiprotich in the mile and Young in the 400m, they’ll need to advance out of Friday’s prelims to reach Saturday’s finals — the top eight times overall advance in the 400m, with the top four in both heats of the mile as well as the two next best times qualifying.
This weekend’s action kicks off Friday afternoon with Pamela Kosgei in the Women’s 5K Final, with all events broadcast via ESPNU on television and ESPN+ for streaming. 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.
NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships
March 14-15 | Virginia Beach, Va. | Virginia Beach Sports Center