Lobos Conclude Day One at Stanford Invite, Fanelli Classic
Pamela Kosgei and Matthew Kosgei broke UNM program records in the women’s and men’s steeplechase to highlight a productive day of distance racing in the Bay Area at the Mike Fanelli Classic and Stanford Invitational on Friday, with Pamela Kosgei’s performance ranking No. 2 among collegiate performances all-time and Matthew Kosgei breaking a UNM record that had stood since 1977 with the No. 16 all-time collegiate performance.
THE ACTION AT MIKE FANELLI CLASSIC
Starting the day off over in San Francisco, Millie Freeland (16:59.12) broke the 17-minute mark in her first collegiate 5,000m race to finish 19th in her heat and 23rd overall ahead of fellow freshmen Anya Belisle (32nd, 17:02.83) and Katrina Endres (64th, 17:42.14). Belisle ran more than 65 seconds faster than her cross country 5K best as all three recorded their season-opening marks in that distance.
On the men’s side, Jayden Hernandez (14:10.03) and Kipruto Koech (14:26.10) both ran solid openers in their first 5,000m races to finish ninth and 10th in the first section and ninth and 17th overall.
In the women’s 1,500m, Meadow Drebert (4:29.75) and Mia Torrecillas (4:36.20) posted significant improvements from their season-opening times last Saturday at elevation, with Drebert shaving 20.7 seconds off her raw time from last weekend (4:50.45) and Torrecillas taking 15.9 seconds off hers (4:52.10). The duo finished 13th and 31st overall after both finished seventh in their respective heats.
The lone men’s competitor in the 1,500m, Blake Reynolds posted a raw PR of 3:59.67 after running 4:01.95 in his opener last weekend – he finished sixth in his heat and 42nd overall.
THE ACTION AT STANFORD INVITATIONAL
South African freshman Li-Mari Dekker made her collegiate debut to open things up at Stanford, notching a 4:30.63 opening time to finish 14th in the fourth section. Matthew Endrody came just shy of improving on his opening time that ranked 20th in the NCAA heading into this week (3:46.51 / 3:41.33@) with a 3:49.06 time, good for second in the fifth section. In later 1,500m racing, Judy Rono ran a raw personal best (4:16.64) to finish second in the third heat but coming up short of improving on her 4:14.81 conversion from last Saturday that ranked No. 1 in the NCAA West Region heading into this week.
Already a world-class steepler for his native Kenya before setting foot on campus, Matthew Kosgei put the nation on notice with a 8:22.13 finish and overall win – a time that shattered a UNM program record that had stood since 1977 and ranks No. 16 amongst NCAA performances all-time.
Not to be outdone, Pamela Kosgei (no relation) followed with an event win of her own on the women’s side – she crossed in 9:15.93, breaking Courtney Frerichs’ program record from 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships (9:24.41) with a performance that now ranks No. 2 on the collegiate all-time list. Behind her, Sophia McDonnell finished third with a new personal best (10:01.17) that ranks No. 7 on the UNM all-time list and will likely qualify her for NCAA Preliminaries once again.
Next up in the women’s 5,000m, Marion Jepngetich (15:22.80) and Alice Seguin (15:33.10) finished second and sixth in the first section, recording season-opening times that etch their names into the record book at No. 3 and No. 7 on the UNM outdoor all-time list.
In the fastest section of the men’s 5,000m, Collins Kiprotich opened up his outdoor season in earnest with a 13:25.06 clocking – and new No. 2 UNM All-Time performance – to finish third overall. Iker Sanchez notched a new personal best (13:48.05) to finish third in the third section – 49.45 seconds faster than his 5K XC best of 14:35.5 from last fall.
Nicola Jansen put down a 33:29.01 season-opening time to finish 22nd in the top heat of the women’s 10,000m, while Jasmine Wood (33:48.59) posted a big 40.56-second improvement from her previous lifetime best of 34:29.16 to finish fifth in the second section.
In the top men’s heat, Evans Kiplagat posted a new lifetime best in the 10,000m (28:05.98) to move from No. 6 to No. 3 on the UNM All-Time list, finishing 13th ahead of Vincent Chirchir (20th, 28:21.08) who narrowly missed on a PR of his own but would still rank among the Top 25 in the nation on the most recent outdoor qualifying list. In the final race of the night, Rikus Van Niekerk (28:25.63) took more than a minute off his previous outdoor 10,000m best (29:50.89) from his time at CBU to finish ninth, with Thomas Termote (28:26.44) taking more than 30 seconds off his lifetime best from the same meet last season (28:58.77) in his return after redshirting the indoor season. Those times move them into the outdoor all-time Top 10 at No. 8 and No. 9, respectively.