Five Lobo Athletes to Compete at NCAA Indoor T&F Championships March 14-15

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

Friday, March 14
Women’s 5k (Final) – 2:40 PM MT – Pamela Kosgei
Men’s Mile (Semi) – 5 p.m. MT – Collins Kiprotich
Men’s 400m (Semi) – 5:30 PM MT – Brodie Young
Men’s 5k (Final) – 6:10 PM MT – Habtom Samuel, Ishmael Kipkurui

Saturday, March 15
Women’s 3k (Final) – 2 PM MT – Pamela Kosgei
Men’s Mile (Final) – 4 PM MT – Collins Kiprotich
Men’s 400m (Final) – 4:20 PM MT – Brodie Young
Men’s 3k (Final) – 5 PM MT – Habtom Samuel, Ishmael Kipkurui

BRODIE GOES BACK-TO-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.

At MWC Indoor Championships, Young’s roll continued with yet another improvement in both the 400m and 200m — both new program records — as he won gold in the 400m with a 45.46 (45.57 converted) time and led the Lobo men to a win in the 4x400m while becoming the first man from UNM to run a sub-21 second 200 indoors (20.80) and finishing with bronze in that event.

ALL-TIME PERFORMANCES / SEASON RECAP
So far this indoor season, UNM athletes have broken 11 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. His qualification is his first as an individual and the first by a UNM 400m runner since Jarrin Solomon in 2009. He did so again at MWC Championships with a 45.46 (45.57) time.
• Alyssa Gregory PR’d twice in the women’s pole vault at MWC Indoor Championships, clearing 4.16m to win gold with a new program record.
• Cam Watts ran the third-fastest time in program history in the 60m dash prelims at MWC Championships (6.68/6.70) before moving up to No. 2 all-time with a 6.64 performance to win gold in the final — the fastest MWC-winning performance since UNM program record holder Ridge Jones in 2015.

RANKINGS CHECK-IN
In the sixth USTFCCCA TFRI rankings of the indoor season released this week, the UNM men and women both ranked among the Top 30 for the sixth week in a row, with the men rising one spot to No. 15 and the women moving up two spots to No. 28. 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. 4 in the nation in the men’s mile, No. 5 in the men’s 3,000m, No. 1 in the men’s 5,000m, No. 12 in the women’s mile, No. 8 in the women’s 3,000m and No. 2 in the women’s 5,000m. 

UNM MEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 6 USTFCCCA TFRI RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 15 (+1)
Mountain Region Rank: No. 3 (–)
Mountain West Conference Rank: No. 2 (–)

UNM WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 6 USTFCCCA TFRI RANKINGS
National Rank: No. 28 (+2)
Mountain Region Rank: No. 5 (-1)
Mountain West Conference Rank: No. 1 (–)

UNM MEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 6 USTFCCCA #EVENTSQUAD RANKINGS (Top 100 only)
Men’s 200m – No. 79
Men’s 400m – No. 97
Men’s 800m – No. 30
Men’s Mile – No. 4
Men’s 3,000m – No. 5
Men’s 5,000m – No. 1

UNM WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 6 USTFCCCA #EVENTSQUAD RANKINGS (Top 100)
Women’s 200m – No. 42
Women’s 400m – No. 12
Women’s 800m – No. 51
Women’s Mile – No. 12
Women’s 3,000m – No. 8
Women’s 5,000m – No. 2
Women’s Pole Vault – No. 20

SAMUEL NAMED TO THE BOWERMAN PRE-CHAMPIONSHIP WATCH LIST
Following two more Mountain West titles two weeks ago, Habtom Samuel was named to The Bowerman Pre-Indoor Championship watchlist. He’s yet to miss the cut this season for the award annually given to the best track & field athlete in the nation.

After opening the year on The Bowerman Preseason Watch List, Samuel 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 in Boston. He broke his own 3,000m record with a 7:39.39 to win the event at the Husky Classic and secure his qualifying mark.

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.