Gauson Sweeps Mountain Region COTY Honors; Kosgei Named Track AOTY
After a massive showing at NCAA Outdoor Championships that saw New Mexico become one of just four teams in the nation to finish in the Top 10 in both the men’s and women’s team scores, Pamela Kosgei has been named USTFCCCA Mountain Region Women’s Athlete of the Year and Head Coach Darren Gauson has been named Regional Coach of the Year for both men and women.
It’s the second Regional Athlete of the Year honor for Kosgei, who also was named as Cross Country Athlete of the Year after a third-placing showing at XC Nationals to wrap up 2024. She’s the first Lobo woman since Weini Kelati (2019) to earn the award for the outdoor season.
She was only the fifth woman in NCAA history to win the 5K/10K double at the same Outdoor Championships and the only the third to do so since 1998. She’s also the first Lobo woman to finish as a first team All-American in two different events since Weini Kelati won the 10K and finished fifth in the 5K in 2019.
Gauson is only the second coach to win both Men’s and Women’s Regional Coach of the Year honors in the same year – Texas Tech’s Wes Kittley also swept both awards in 2022 and 2024. He’s the first UNM coach to win Regional Coach of the Year honors since Joe Franklin in 2010.
After completing a sweep of the women’s Mountain West XC, Indoor and Outdoor titles in May, the Lobo women wrapped up the 2025 outdoor season in 9th place in the team score with 25 points in total – the second-most women’s points at National Championships in program history behind a 27-point total in 2019. The men also matched their previous-highest finish with the most points in history (5th, 31 points) after the conclusion of Friday’s finals.
Earlier this week, the men finished seventh in the USTFCCCA’s D-I Men’s Program of the Year standings and eighth on the women’s side.
In total, the Lobo men’s and women’s teams combined for 56 points, more than doubling the previous highest total output in program history when the women scored 16 points and the men scored six in 2018. It’s also the first time with both teams in the Top 10 in the same year and the lowest combined finish between the two teams.
In total, the Lobos took home a total of eight First Team All-America trophies (five for men, three for women) with three individual titles between men and women.
New Mexico is the only non-power five program to finish among the Top 10 in the nation for both men and women – they are one of just four programs in the nation to do so along with USC, Texas A&M and Arkansas.
UNM is the only program in the nation to finish in the Top 10 nationally for men and women at both NCAA Cross Country and Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 2024-25.
