After a busy weekend of competition in California across four meets, New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel has been named MW Men’s Track Athlete of the Week and Eva Ngom has been named Women’s Freshman of the Week, the league announced Tuesday.
It’s Ngom’s second FOTW honor of the academic year and first of the outdoor season, and the 11th MW Athlete of the Week award of Samuel's career.
HABTOM SAMUEL - MW MEN’S TRACK ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Samuel was named MW Track Athlete of the Week for the second time this outdoor season after picking up his second National Athlete of the Week honors of the season yesterday.
It's the fifth National Athlete of the Week award in his career and his fourth this academic year alone -- he was named XC Athlete of the Week in October after winning the Nuttycombe Invitational title, Indoor Track Athlete of the Week in December after his season-opening 5K win in Boston and Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week on April 6.
Samuel threw down a devastating kick with a 1:58 clocking over the last two laps as he blew away the fastest field of the night in Azusa, finishing in 13:03.47 to beat his own NCAA Outdoor 5K record and reassert his status as the favorite to win both the 5K and 10K at NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
The next two fastest finishers, Oklahoma State’s Deni Kipngetich (13:13.43) and BYU’s Tayvon Kitchen (13:16.27) were well out of sight when Samuel crossed the finish line. The fastest 5K in the nation heading into this weekend’s competition was 13:19.73 from Oregon’s Simeon Birnbaum.
EVA NGOM - MW WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Ngom PR'd in all three solo races last weekend in California, running a new PB of 53.05 in the 400m Thursday before breaking through with a new MW No. 2 time and UNM program record of 52.08 on Saturday to win the Beach Invitational. She followed that up with a 200m PB that ranks 8th in the conference (23.63).
On the same day as her program record, Ngom ran UNM's fastest split on the anchor leg of the fastest women's 4x400m in the MW this outdoor season, closing in 51.89 as UNM posted a 3:33.91 time at the MT. SAC Relays.