The University of New Mexico women's cross country team had high expectations, a No. 1 ranking and an NCAA National Championship to defend on Saturday morning in Madison, Wisconsin.
But UNM came up a little bit short in its bid to repeat as national champions — earning a second-place finish on Saturday. It was the ninth consecutive season the women have recorded a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships.
"I thought it was fantastic," head coach Joe Franklin said in a release. "The women continued on the New Mexico tradition of being great at the NCAA Championship."
New Mexico probably couldn't have put itself in a better situation. The squad had seen Zimmer Championship Course twice already this season, taking third place at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in September and winning the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals last month.
Weini Kelati, a sophomore on the cross country team, put herself on the map this season. She entered Saturday with three straight individual titles under her belt, clocking the fastest time at the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals, at the Mountain West Championships and the Mountain Regionals, where she recorded a personal best time of 19:15.0.
Her teammate Edna Kurgat won all four races she competed in last season, including the 2017 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. The duo has accomplished a lot already in the world of cross country, and continued to display their talents on the sports' biggest stage.
Kelati wasn't the first to cross the finish line on Saturday — neither was Kurgat. But both women finished in the top-5 at the meet, and Charlotte Prouse put a third Lobo in the top-10 to give UNM a great shot at retaining its title.
Five of the top 10 runners wore either a Colorado jersey or a New Mexico one, making for an exciting culmination to the championship season.
Colorado's Dani Jones won the individual title with a time of 19:42.8, with Kelati hot on her heels at 19:45.3 to place second. Kurgat came in fifth place, completing the 6K in 19:55.8. Colorado's second scorer was Makena Morely, who finished eighth, but Prouse finished just behind her as UNM's third scorer.
At that point, New Mexico had a theoretical lead since there were three runners in the book with a combined team score of 16. Colorado had a team score of nine, but the best team score it could achieve with its third runner would be a 20 in the lowest-score-wins format.
Tabor Shall became Colorado's third scorer, recording a 15th place finish to bring the team's total to 23.
Things would essentially boil down to whether the Buffaloes next two runners would finish ahead of the remaining two scorers for the Lobos — and if so, by how much.
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The total scoring picture started to become clearer as Colorado recorded the next two finishers between the two schools. Sage Hurt and Tayler Tuttle came in 22nd and 24th respectively to give the Buffaloes a final score of 65, which all but clinched the title.
Prior to the meet, conventional wisdom suggested one of the top schools would potentially have a shot at placing all five scorers in the top-25. Colorado was able to do that and flip the scoring on the strength of its No. 4 and No. 5 scorers. And that forced New Mexico into a situation where it would have to secure two of the next three scoring positions in order to have a chance to win or tie.
Adva Cohen was the next scorer for New Mexico (43rd overall), followed Emily Martin (55th), giving New Mexico a team score of 103, good enough for a runner-up performance as a school.
Oregon came in third place with a total of 163, while Michigan scored 203 points and were the only other schools to have all five scorers finish in the top-100 overall in a field of 253 women.
Morgan McDonal had the top time, with a run of 29:08.03 in the men's 10K for host school Wisconsin. But it was Northern Arizona that took the podium with a team score of 83 points — snagging its third consecutive NCAA Championship.
The New Mexico women's program should be in great shape for next season as well. Prouse and Martin are seniors, but the rest of the crew are underclassmen and will likely return to the fray with some more experience and hungry to reclaim the title.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers basketball and baseball and contributes content for various other sports as well. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Robert_Maler.
