BOSTON OPENER NOTES
- Fresh off his first National Cross Country title, Habtom Samuel faces off against some of the nation’s best collegians and professionals in the “Elite” 5,000m alongside fellow indoor and XC All-Americans Collins Kiprotich and Evans Kiplagat. Samuel holds the UNM record in the indoor 5,000m (13:04.92), set at Boston U on Jan. 31 – that time ranks fourth among all-time indoor collegiate performances. Interestingly enough, Samuel’s slightly slower outdoor best of 13:05.87 from April 18 is the current outdoor collegiate record.
- The Elite 5,000m race will be paced to hit below the 13-minute mark, which would be a new PR and one of the fastest performances in collegiate history for Samuel. The indoor collegiate record held by Nico Young is 12:57.14.
- Kiplagat ranks fourth on the UNM indoor all-time list (13:26.56), while Kiprotich will be running his first indoor 5K – Kiprotich ranks third on the UNM outdoor list (13:25.06) behind Samuel and Ishmael Kipkurui.
- Last year at the same BU Opener meet, Pamela Kosgei put down the sixth-fastest indoor 5K performance in collegiate history (15:00.36), going on to finish third in the event at NCAA Indoor Championships and eventually breaking the 15-minute mark in the outdoor season with the second-fastest outdoor performance in collegiate history (14:52.45) en route to NCAA outdoor titles in both the 5K and 10K. She’ll be among multiple athletes gunning for a new collegiate record in a loaded women’s “Elite” section.
- Sophomores Meadow Drebert and Matthew Endrody will run their first collegiate 3,000m races to open up the day alongside NCAA Nationals Competitors Alice Seguin and Joshua Abraham.
- Eight Lobo women are slotted to compete in the later heats of the Women’s 5,000m, with Tina Nisoli making her season debut after not competing in cross country this fall.
- Two more men that finished in the Top 70 at NCAA XC Championships on Nov. 22 – Vincent Chirchir and Iker Sanchez – close out the evening in the men’s 5,000m heats that will follow the women’s completion.
SATURDAY'S SCHEDULE
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Time (MT)
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Event
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Athlete(s)
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11 a.m.
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Women’s 3,000m
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Meadow Drebert
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11:55 a.m.
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Men’s 3,000m
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Joshua Abraham, Matthew Endrödy
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1 p.m.
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Men’s Elite 5,000m
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Habtom Samuel, Collins Kiprotich, Evans Kiplagat
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1 p.m.
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Women’s Elite 5,000m
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Pamela Kosgei
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2:30 p.m.
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Women’s 5,000m
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Nicola Jansen, Marion Jepngetich, Mercy Kirarei, Tina Nisoli, Alice Seguin, Tilly Simpson, Jasmine Wood
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5:10 p.m.
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Men’s 5,000m
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Vincent Chirchir, Iker Sanchez
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*Registrations only; not all UNM athletes are guaranteed to compete in all events registered for.
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NCAA XC CHAMPIONSHIP RECAP
After two years of close calls, Habtom Samuel finally won an NCAA Cross Country title and New Mexico’s men and women both finished on the team podium for the first time in program history to cap off a historic day at the 2025 NCAA Championships Nov. 22 at Gans Creek Park.
It’s the lowest combined placing between the two teams at NCAA Championships in program history, the second year in a row in which the Lobos accomplished the feat after the women finished seventh and men finished ninth in 2024. Prior to the 2024 NCAA Championships, the Lobos had never put both teams in the Top 10 of the national team score – this year, both finished in the Top 4.
Among 15 programs that qualified both men’s and women’s squads for nationals, UNM is the only one to place both on the team podium.
“To finish as the only NCAA Division I program to double trophy, I mean, it just speaks to New Mexico cross country/track and field and what we’re all about,” said UNM Head Coach Darren Gauson.
"We’re just going to keep our foot on the gas and try and come back and win two [next season]".
Samuel ran a strategic race, hanging near the front of the pack before making a late move to which no other individual could respond as he pulled away down the stretch. He moved up 12 spots with a 2:37.4 kilometer split between the eight- and nine-kilometer marks to take control and didn't look back, exuberantly celebrating as he bounded down the final 100 meters with victory in hand. He ran his final kilometer in 2:44.6, making the final two splits his fastest of the day.
“I’ve been very close — runner-up these past years,” Samuel said after the race. “This was my time.
"I’m really happy. This is God’s plan. Finally, I just made it -- I finished. I got the title to bring to Albuquerque.”
Samuel becomes the first man from New Mexico and the second Mountain West men’s runner to accomplish the feat, joining BYU’s Josh Rohatinsky (30:44:90), who won in 2006. His 10k time of 28:33.9 at the national meet is also the best in conference history, surpassing his marks of 28:40.7 in 2023 and 28:38.9 in 2024.
He's also the third Lobo -- man or woman -- to win an individual cross country title after Ednah Kurgat (2015) and Weini Kelati (2017).
“I have the endurance more than anyone, I can say that,” Samuel said. “I just run very hard. By the time I got to the front, I was just telling myself, I’m going to run hard. I’m gonna break those guys and just keep this fast pace. And I did it. That was the plan.”
Five Lobos – four men and one women – secured Top-40 individual finishes for All-American honors, with Samuel joined by Pamela Kosgei (17th, 19:02.8) on the women’s side and Collins Kiprotich (8th, 28:45.7), Evans Kiplagat (13th, 28:50.7) and Vincent Chirchir (20th, 28:52.8) on the men’s side. They’re the third All-American cross country honors of Samuel and Kiplagat’s careers, the second of Kiprotich’s and the second year in a row with a total of five All-Americans between men and women.
The UNM men finished with 82 points to place second in the nation, breaking a program record for lowest men’s point total that they set at last year’s national meet (272 points). In their first team appearance since 2014 in 2023, they finished 18th with 465 points — they shaved 193 points off of that in 2024 and 190 more off that this year.
The Lobo women returned to the podium with a 216-point total to secure a fourth-place team finish, with all five point-scorers packing into the Top 75 individuals behind Kosgei’s 17th-place performance. Marion Jepngetich (43rd, 19:27.6) and Judy Rono (49th, 19:31.5) both placed among the Top 50 in their first NCAA Championship races, with Alice Seguin (71st, 19:43.0) and Nicola Jansen (73rd, 19:43.6) closing out the scoring.
2025-26 INDOOR SCHEDULE
After the spring semester kicks off, the Lobos open up the Albuquerque Convention Center with the Dr. MLK Jr. Invitational (Jan. 23-24) for their first home meet. For the weekend of Jan. 30-31, the squad splits up between the UNM Team Open at home and the BU Terrier Classic in Boston.
Next up are the New Mexico Collegiate Classic (Feb. 6-7) – a 16-team invitational meet — and the Don Kirby Elite Invitational the following weekend (Feb. 13-14), with another group of UNM athletes heading to Seattle for the Washington Husky Classic on the same dates.
After a quick trip to Notre Dame for the Alex Wilson Invitational – known for its elite Distance Medley Relay competition – on Feb. 26, the Lobos head to Reno for their first Mountain West Championships away from home in a decade.
UNM athletes with marks that rank among the Top 16 declared individuals and relay squads that rank among the Top 12 in NCAA D-I at the conclusion of the season will qualify for NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, hosted at University of Arkansas. Five Lobo athletes qualified for NCAA Indoor Championships last year in Virginia Beach, Va. – Habtom Samuel (3,000m, 5,000m), Ishmael Kipkurui (3,000m, 5,000m), Collins Kiprotich (Mile), Brodie Young (400m) and Pamela Kosgei (5,000m, 3,000m) – Samuel, Kipkurui and Kosgei all earning multiple All-America finishes. All but Kipkurui – who forewent the rest of his collegiate eligibility to sign a pro contract with Nike in the summer – are set to compete for the Lobos again this season.
