The New Mexico women’s cross country team made a strong case for retaining the No. 1 spot in the nation at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational.
For the second consecutive year at Notre Dame, the women’s team claimed the top spot. The men also turned in an impressive performance, coming in ninth place.
North Carolina State’s Ryen Frazier recorded the best time in the 5-kilometer race, but several Lobo women were right at her heels. In fact, all five of the Lobos that scored were among the top 12.
Senior Courtney Frerichs ran the best time for the women, coming in second place with a time of 16:27. Although she has run this event before, it was the first time she’s done it as a Lobo.
“I knew what to expect a little more. I knew the course was fast,” Frerichs said. “I felt better prepared for it this time around.”
Frerichs said she was pleased with the way the team worked together and took turns being leaders throughout the race.
“I thought that our team performance was incredible. I think it’s just the start of what this season is going to be about,” she said. “We really worked together the whole time.”
The four remaining point scorers for the Lobos were Rhona Auckland (fourth), Alice Wright (fifth), Calli Thackery (sixth) and Molly Renfer (12th).
On the men’s side, three of the runners finished in the top 30, although there was a gap between those runners and the next wave.
Senior Elmar Engholm finished the five-mile race with the best time (24:09.1) for the team and came in 18th overall. Engholm said he hopes the men can work to close that gap next time.
“We know what we need to do in two weeks and for the rest of the season now,” Engholm said. “We had some runners that usually score a lot higher (who) had bad days. It’s just one of those things; that stuff happens.”
Engholm said Notre Dame’s course is challenging because the field is bunched up in such a small area.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
“This invitational is pretty crazy because it’s a pretty tiny course: it’s not very wide,” he said. “You have about 200 runners that all want to be close to the front of the race all the time. There were probably 20 people going down in the first mile.”
Robert Maler is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
