27 Lobos Head to NCAA West Region Prelims at Texas A&M

27 New Mexico Track & Field athletes head to Texas A&M for this year’s NCAA West Region Prelims this week to compete for spots at NCAA Outdoor Championships, with competition taking place Wednesday (May 28) through Saturday (May 31).

The Lobos’ 27 qualifiers are the second-most in program history and most since a 28-athlete showing in 2011. Last season, Habtom Samuel was the lone Lobo to make it out of West Regionals, going on to win the 10,000m Final in Eugene in dramatic fashion for his first national title.

UNM will be looking to send quite a few more athletes to national finals this time around after a season that’s seen them ascend to the upper echelon nationally. In the 2024-25 academic year so far, both squads finished in the Top 10 in the team standings at Cross Country Nationals and were ranked among the Top 30 in the nation in the USTFCCCA’s TFRI Rankings for the entirety of the indoor season. 

Both teams are now in position to score enough team points at NCAA Outdoor Championships to potentially finish in the Top 10, but their success in Eugene depends on how many athletes advance from this week’s action in College Station.

All of this week’s competition in College Station will be available to stream via ESPN+. Head to GoLobos.com/FollowTrack for all of this week’s live results and streaming links and follow @UNMLoboXCTF on Instagram and X for live coverage, meet day content and more.

NCAA West Region First Round
May 28-31 | College Station, Texas

LAST TIME OUT (MW OTF CHAMPIONSHIPS, MAY 15-17)
In their last weekend of competition at Mountain West Outdoor Championships (May 15-17), the Lobo women won their first Mountain West outdoor team title to complete the season sweep of XC, Indoor and Outdoor Women’s Championships in the 2024-25 academic year. The men finished second to Colorado State with 171.5 points — their second top-two finish at conference track championships in a row after finishing second with 161 points at Indoor Championships in Albuquerque in March.

Darren Gauson was named MW Women’s Coach of the Year for the third time this season after leading the Lobos to their first-ever outdoor title, with Mathew Kosgei earning MW Men’s Track Performer of the Meet honors after shattering the steeplechase meet record with a 8:25.56 finish yesterday and contributing five more points on Saturday night with a fourth-place finish in the men’s 5,000 final (13:39.35). 

UNM’s women’s championship is the first Mountain West Conference outdoor women’s track and field title for New Mexico in the 25-year history of the league – the Lobos accomplished the championship with a powerful distance force, with 80 points coming from the 800m, 1500m, Steeplechase, 5,000m and 10,000m. The 5000 meters was the biggest point producer, as the Lobos got 30 points from just that event alone thanks to six Lobos that finished in the Top 8 – Pamela Kosgei (1st, 15:50.96), Marion Jepngetich (2nd, 15:53.29), Judy Rono (4th, 16:11.64), Nicola Jansen (5th, 16:16.59), Alice Seguin (7th, 16:19.77), Sophia McDonnell (8th, 16:23.16). Each of those runners also scored points in another event – Kosgei also won the steeplechase, Jepngetich finished second in the 1,500m, McDonnell finished third in the steeplechase, Jansen finished sixth in the 10,000m, Rono won the 800m and Seguin finished third in the 1,500m.

In total, UNM took home Mountain West gold in four events (10,000m, 5,000m, Steeplechase, 4×400 meter Relay) – of the 28 Lobo athletes who competed in the championship, 20 were able to score for the team. The Lobos scored in 13 of the 21 events despite only producing 16 points in field events, with 12 points in the pole vault and two each from Zennia Gonzalez (Long Jump) and Mikyla Harkley (Triple Jump).

Pamela Kosgei remains undefeated in Mountain West title races, with individual wins in XC (2024), the indoor 3,000m and 5,000m (2025) and the steeplechase and 5,000m this weekend.

On the men’s side, UNM’s 171 points was the third-most in MWC Championship history, behind 185 points in 2014 and 177 points in 2011. The Lobos scored 159 of their 171 points on the track, only getting 12 points in two field events while scoring 90 points in the 800m, 1,500m, Steeplechase, 5,000m and 10,000m. Seven event titles led the way for the Lobos (100, 400 Hurdles, 1500, Steeplechase, 5000, 10,000, 4×400 meter Relay). Of the 26 men who traveled to the championship 20 were able to score for the team.

Habtom Samuel’s streak of eight consecutive wins in Mountain West Championship races across XC, Indoor and Outdoor was snapped as he finished second to teammate Collins Kiprotich in the 1,500m and to another teammate and fellow Bowerman Award Watchlist selection Ishmael Kipkurui in the 5,000m — he’ll compete in the 5,000m again along with his specialty distance the 10,000m in two weeks at NCAA West Region Preliminaries in College Station, Texas.

LOBO TRIO RANKED AMONG TOP 25 NCAA TRACK STARS
In NCAA Track & Field’s Top 25 D-I Both-Genders All-Events rankings released this week from Stan Becton, Habtom Samuel (No. 5), Ishmael Kipkurui (No. 6) and Pamela Kosgei (No. 8) all cracked the Top 10.

LOBOS VS. THE WORLD
Entering this week, the Lobos have three different athletes with world-leading marks in three events – Pamela Kosgei (9:15.63) and Matthew Kosgei (8:22.13) lead the world in women’s and men’s steeplechase, with Ishmael Kipkurui’s 26:50.21 NCAA-record performance two weeks ago at Sound Running’s THE TEN leading the world in the men’s 10,000m. Behind Kipkurui, Habtom Samuel’s 26:51.06 clocking at THE TEN – the No. 2 performance in NCAA history – also ranks No. 2 in the world.

After putting down the fastest men’s and women’s steeplechase performances in the world this year – and the No. 16 and No. 2 marks in collegiate history, respectively – New Mexico’s Matthew Kosgei and Pamela Kosgei have both been named Mountain West OTF Freshmen & Athletes of the Week, with Kosgei also being named USTFCCCA National Co-Athlete of the Week for the second time in her career.

It’s the fourth MW weekly track award for Pamela Kosgei this year – and sixth including the cross country season – and the first of Matthew Kosgei’s career.

REGIONAL RUNDOWN
Going into this week, eight athletes from New Mexico have posted 12 marks across seven events that rank among the Top 10 in the West Region.

PROMISING NCAA OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP PROJECTIONS
In DyeStat’s first FormChart scoring projections for NCAA Outdoor Championships, the Lobos crack the Top 10 in both men’s and women’s fields – the men are projected to tie for fifth with 27 points, while the women are projected to finish in a tie for 10th with 20 points.

UNM is one of five schools with both teams projected to finish in the Top 10 along with USC, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas and Texas A&M. They’re the only non-Power Conference women’s program in the Top 10 and one of two mid-major programs in the men’s Top 10.

Should the Lobo men match or beat their projections, it would outpace 1965 (5th, 25 points) for the highest team finish and most team points at NCAA Outdoor Championships in school history. The UNM Women’s best performance at NCAA Outdoors was in 2019, when they placed 8th with 27 points in total.

HANNA KIESS KEEPS CLIMBING
400 hurdler Hanna Kiess – a walk-on who joined the team ahead of last indoor season – has posted a new personal best in eight of her last 10 races dating back to her first outdoor season in 2024, climbing up the UNM all-time list in the process.

In her very first 400 meter Hurdle race of the season she clipped off a 59.50 which moved her up to fourth-fastest all-time at UNM– she followed two weeks later with another PB (59.29) and the next day grabbed another PB (58.73) at two different meets at Long Beach State. That performance moved her to #3 all-time at UNM before another PB (58.40) that moved her up to #2 all-time. In MW prelims, she easily advanced to the final with a 59.27 – still the ninth-fastest time in Lobo history. In the five-decade history of Lobo women’s track (1975-present) there had only been seven athletes who ever dipped under the 60.00 threshold in the 400 meter Hurdles – of those seven, one was her coach, Kyra Mohns.

In the final, Kiess produced yet another stunning improvement, holding off a Colorado State athlete down the stretch to finish as runner-up with a 58.03 performance that moved her up to No. 30 in the West Region and ensured she’ll get to race at least once more this year in addition to running a leg of the women’s 4x400m relay.

The cherry on top – Kiess’ ascent to the top of the UNM list is now complete. That 58.03 time broke a UNM record held by Shannon Vessup (58.10) that had stood untouched since 1984. 

LOBO ONE-LAP CREW BRINGS IT HOME
Both Lobo men and women got a stellar effort from their 400m, 400 hurdles and 4×400 relays at MW Championships in Clovis, scoring 33 points on the men’s side and 35 on the women’s side across the three events, sweeping the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay titles to close out the night.

CAM WATTS’ HOT START
In the men’s 100 meters at the UNM Don Kirby Invite, Cam Watts — a dual-sport athlete in football and track and MW Indoor Champion in the 60 meter dash — won the event in 10.05 seconds to set a new UNM school record after conversions (10.08 conversion for NCAA ranking purposes) that leads the Mountain West. The previous mark of 10.28 (converted) was held by BeeJay Lee (2012) and Victor Akhalu (2023). Watts ranks Top-50 in the nation and No. 8 in the West Region, winning his second MW title with a 10.23 in the men’s 100m final two weeks ago.
Watts now ranks No. 2 in the indoor 60m and No. 1 all-time in the men’s outdoor 100m – his two performances at MW Indoor Championships in the 60m were his first two races in a Lobo uniform.

JUDY RONO’S STOCK IS RISING
Judy Rono improved on her season best as she took home MW gold in the 800m in Clovis, clocking a 2:03.91 time that stands as the second-fastest 800m in program history and fastest by a Lobo woman since 1976 (2:03.98). She also showed some range later in the same day, posting a 5,000m PR as part of a 30-point effort for the Lobo women in the event, posting a 16:11.64 to finish fourth.

Rono also owns the No. 2 time in UNM history in the 1,500m (4:11.45) from Bryan Clay, the event in which she’ll compete at regionals. Rono and 1,500m program record holder Abbe Goldstein are the only Lobo women to run below 4:12 in school history. Rono is now a two-time MW Champion in the 800m, winning gold in both indoor and outdoor in her first collegiate season. 

RANKINGS CHECK-IN
After both the UNM men and women stayed ranked among the Top 30 in the nation for all six USTFCCCA TFRI rankings of the indoor season, both teams cracked the Top 10 in the same weekly ranking for the first time in program history this year and have both remained in the 

The UNM men remain at No. 8  – their seventh week in a row in the Top 10 – after rising matching a program-best with a No. 6 national ranking in Week #4. Their previous best was No. 18 in the final week of the 2011 season.

Likewise, the UNM women remained in the Top 25 for the seventh week in a row, coming in at No. 20 this week. In the time since they clocked in at No. 7 in the nation in the final regular-season ranking of the 2019 season, the Lobo women had only cracked the Top 10 as a team once until Week 2’s No. 8 ranking, coming in at No. 9 in the nation in Week 4 in 2022.

UNM MEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 8 USTFCCCA TFRI RANKINGS

• National Rank: No. 8 (–)
• Mountain Region Rank: No. 4 (–)
• Mountain West Conference Rank: No. 2 (–)

UNM WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 8 USTFCCCA TFRI RANKINGS

• National Rank: No. 21 (–)
• Mountain Region Rank: No. 5 (-1)
• Mountain West Conference Rank: No. 1 (–)

UNM MEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 8 USTFCCCA #EVENTSQUAD RANKINGS (Top 100 only)

• Men’s 100m – No. 25
• Men’s 200m – No. 63
• Men’s 1,500m – No. 15
• Men’s 5,000m – No. 1
• Men’s 10,000m – No. 1
• Men’s 400m Hurdles – No. 13

UNM WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD – WEEK 8 USTFCCCA #EVENTSQUAD RANKINGS (Top 100)

• Women’s 200m – No. 60
• Women’s 400m – No. 17
• Women’s 800m – No. 42
• Women’s 1,500m – No. 14
• Women’s 5,000m – No. 2
• Women’s 10,000m – No. 2
• Women’s Steeplechase – No. 7
• Women’s Pole Vault – No. 32

THE ROAD TO NCAA OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Participants for the 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships first rounds are determined by the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Committee. For each individual event contested at both of the NCAA Regional Preliminary Round sites, the Top 48 declared student-athletes and Top 24 relay squads in their respective regions will be accepted into the competition, with the Top 12 in each Prelim advancing to the NCAA Outdoor National Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. June 11-14.

University of North Florida will host the East Preliminary in Jacksonville and Texas A&M will host the West Preliminary in College Station, with both taking place May 28-31.