No. 2/2 New Mexico XC Set for Ranked Test at Cowboy Jamboree Saturday

Ranked No. 2 in the nation for both men and women, New Mexico Cross Country gets the 2026 season started in earnest at the OSU Cowboy Jamboree Saturday in Stillwater, Okla., racing among a field that includes four ranked men's teams and three ranked women's teams.

Saturday's race will see the Lobo men square off with No. 1 Oklahoma State and No. 5 Oregon as well as No. 21 Tulsa, with the women set to compete against No. 3 BYU and No. 15 Oklahoma State.

The women’s 6K is slated to start at 7:15 a.m. MT, with the men’s 8K immediately following at 7:50 a.m. Live results for Saturday’s races will be available via GoLobos.com/XCResults. Follow @UNMLoboXCTF on IG and X for raceday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.

OSU COWBOY JAMBOREE
Saturday, Sept. 26 | Greiner Family Cross Country Course

7:15 a.m. Women’s 6K / 7:50 a.m. Men’s 8K

COMPETING TEAMS (D1 ONLY)

Men	Women
#1 Oklahoma State	#2 New Mexico
#2 New Mexico	#3 BYU
#5 Oregon	#15 Oklahoma State
#21 Tulsa	Abilene Christian
Abilene Christian	Central Arkansas
Central Arkansas	East Texas A&M
East Texas A&M	Lamar
Lamar	Oklahoma
Oklahoma	Oral Roberts
Oral Roberts	SMU
Stephen F. Austin	Stephen F. Austin
Tarleton State	Tarleton State
TCU	TCU
	Tulsa

RANKINGS UPDATE
New Mexico continues to hold it down at No. 2 in the nation for both men and women in Tuesday's USTFCCCA Week One Coaches' Poll after opening in the same spots in the national preseason poll earlier in September.

The reigning Mountain Region champions for both men and women also clocked in at No. 1 in Monday's regional rankings.

The No. 2 ranking matches the highest in program history for the Lobo men, who also opened the 2025 season in the same spot before going on to produce their best NCAA team finish in program history. Prior to last season, the UNM men had never been ranked higher than No. 5 at any point in the USTFCCCA national poll.

For the women, the No. 2 ranking is their highest since finishing the 2022 season ranked second nationally and their highest preseason position since also opening that season at No. 2. It marks the 10th time in program history that the Lobo women have opened a season ranked among the nation’s Top Four and the fifth time they have started at No. 2 or better.

2025 IN REVIEW / 2026 SEASON PREVIEW
New Mexico enters 2026 coming off one of the most successful seasons in program history, with both squads earning team trophies at the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first time. The Lobo men finished as national runners-up while the women placed fourth, making UNM the only program in the country to put both its men’s and women’s teams on the podium. Habtom Samuel capped the season by becoming the first man from New Mexico to win an individual NCAA cross country title.

The Lobos were equally dominant throughout the postseason, sweeping both the men’s and women’s team titles at the Mountain West and NCAA Mountain Region Championships. UNM has now won three consecutive MW men’s championships and 17 of the last 18 women’s titles, extending its streak of winning at least one conference team championship to 18 straight seasons.

Although Samuel turned professional during the offseason, New Mexico returns the bulk of its production from last year’s podium teams and enters 2026 as the Mountain West favorite on both sides. The Lobo men received seven of eight first-place votes in the league’s preseason coaches’ poll, while the women earned nine of 10 first-place votes.

On the women's side, the Lobos return two national champions in Pamela Kosgei (2025 Outdoor 5K and 10K) and Marion Jepngetich (2026 Outdoor 5K) -- the men get back three of their five point-scorers from last season's runner-up team, including First Team All-Americans Collins Kiprotich (8th at NCAA's in 2025), Evans Kiplagat (13th) and Vincent Chirchir (20th).

UNM will look to qualify both teams for NCAA Championships for the third consecutive season, with a six-meet schedule that includes the Cowboy Jamboree and Nuttycombe Invitational before postseason competition begins Oct. 30 at the Mountain West Championships in Reno. The Lobos will then return home to host the NCAA Mountain Region Championships Nov. 13 at the UNM North Course before NCAA Championships Nov. 21 in Terre Haute, Ind.

LAST TIME AT STILLWATER
Saturday marks the third year in a row in which the Lobos compete at the Cowboy Jamboree -- the Lobo women won the team title in 2024 with men finishing second, with the men finishing second again in 2025 ahead of a third-place finish from the women.

Even without low sticks Habtom Samuel and Pamela Kosgei, New Mexico finished second in the men’s team score and third on the women’s side in their first bout with ranked competition of the 2025 season, with Marion Jepngetich and Collins Kiprotich leading the way with third-place individual finishes.

Men's Team	Scoring	Total Points	Women's Team	Scoring	Total Points
#3 Oklahoma State	1-6-7-8-14-(15)-(26)	36	#1 BYU	2-4-8-9-11-(12)-(15)	34
#2 New Mexico	3-4-5-11-18-(22)-(25)	41	#13 Oklahoma State	1-5-7-21-23-(26)-(31)	57
#29 Tulsa	10-20-21-23-33-(39)-(41)	107	#3 New Mexico	3-13-14-17-18-(30)-(33)	65
RV Oklahoma	2-9-19-29-49-(72)-(81)	108	Kentucky	10-16-28-35-38-(48)-(52)	127
Kentucky	12-13-30-40-52-(59)-(65)	147	SMU	6-24-27-37-40-(41)-(43)	134
#10 Oregon	16-27-28-47-55	173	Western Colorado	22-34-36-47-49-(53)-(76)	188

The No. 3 Lobo women packed all five point-scorers into the overall Top 20 to score a total of 65 points behind No. 1 BYU (34 points) and No. 13 Oklahoma State (57 points). In her first collegiate cross country race, 2025 Outdoor All-American Marion Jepngetich crossed third overall in 20:15.8 to lead the way, with Nicola Jansen (13th, 20:46.7), Tilly Simpson (14th, 20:52.6), Alice Seguin (17th, 20:59.7) and Jasmine Wood (18th, 21:01.8) comprising the rest of UNM’s point-scorers. Even with Pamela Kosgei, the UNM women's Top Five posted a 20:47 average time with just 46 seconds between them.

UNM held the lowest score in the field with 44 points at the two-kilometer mark before BYU surged to take the lead with two kilometers remaining and didn't relinquish it.

The UNM men – ranked No. 2 in the nation heading into this week – finished with 41 points in total, just five points behind No. 3 Oklahoma State (36 points). Behind Kiprotich’s 23:38.0 finish in his first race of the year, Vincent Chirchir (23:39.8) and Evans Kiplagat (23:42.4) finished fourth and fifth and Iker Sanchez (11th, 24:02.8) and Mathew Kosgei (18th, 24:13.7) rounded out the scoring. The Lobos beat out two ranked teams – No. 10 Oregon and No. 29 Tulsa – along with an Oklahoma squad that was receiving votes in last week’s poll. All in all, UNM's Top Five averaged a 23:51 finish with a spread of just 35 seconds.

The Lobo men remained in second place in the team score for much of the race, taking a brief lead after trimming down 33 points over the third kilometer -- Oklahoma State shaved off 14 points over the final three kilometers to hold them off down the stretch.