After a pair of dominant season-opening 10,000m performances at the Stanford Invitational, New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel and Pamela Kosgei have been named Mountain West Men’s and Women’s Track Athletes of the Week, the league announced Tuesday.
It’s Kosgei’s ninth MW Athlete of the Week honor, counting cross country and indoor track. It's the 10th MW Athlete of the Week award of Samuel's career.
In his first outdoor race of the season Friday night in Palo Alto, Samuel ran the fastest 10K in the nation so far this season -- nearly eight seconds faster than the No. 2 time -- en route to an individual win to open his season at the Stanford Invitational.
That time ranks 11th amongst collegiate performances all-time and is a new Stanford Invite meet record. Samuel won the 2024 outdoor 10K title his freshman year and finished as national runner-up behind teammate and collegiate record holder Ishmael Kipkurui in 2025 – his 26:53.84 performance at THE TEN in 2024 ranks No. 2 on the all-time collegiate list.
Samuel was named USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week on Monday for his efforts – his fourth National AOTW honors of his career and third in this calendar year alone.
Earlier on in the night, Kosgei finished second behind a collegiate record performance from BYU’s Jane Hedengren (30:46.80) with the second-fastest 10K performance in collegiate history, surpassing Parker Valby’s previous record of 30:50.43 that had stood since 2024. In doing so, Kosgei recorded a new Mountain West and UNM record.
Kosgei now holds three of the top five fastest 10K times in collegiate history and is one of just three collegiate women to run below 31 minutes in the event all-time – she won the national title in the 10K in 2025.