by Steven Fernandez
Daily Lobo
If the first two meets of the cross country season are a sign of things to come, it should be an amazing year for Jacquelyne Gallegos.
Gallegos sprinted her way to a third-place finish at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., on Saturday, helping solidify her place as one of the top runners in the nation.
Though Gallegos trailed most of the race, the senior made a strong push at the end, and fell just six seconds short of catching the winner, All-American Arianna Lambie from Stanford. Gallegos helped lead UNM to a 10th-place finish among a field of the 32 most talented teams in the country.
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Gallegos ran one of her fastest career times, finishing the 6,000-meter course in 21:21.
Gallegos' third-place finish came one week after her first collegiate victory at the UNM home meet.
Head coach Matt Henry said he is pleased with the way Gallegos has been running, and expects her to keep performing well.
"I'm real proud of Jackie," he said. "It's hard to make a comeback when you're behind most of the race, but she made a run at the end. She's the real deal."
Also performing strong for the Lobo women was junior Timmie Murphy. It was the second time in two races that she was the Lobos' second finisher. In the race, Murphy placed 12th overall with a time of 22:09.
Henry said Murphy was key to the UNM women's 10th-place finish.
"Timmie set her tone from the beginning," he said. "She did a good job for us, and she's on a mission as well."
On the men's side, Cameron Clarke and Nate Clem led the Lobos to a ninth-place finish out of 13 teams. The seniors came in back to back, with Clarke stopping the clock in 24:39 and Clem just one second behind for the 8,000-meter course.
Henry said the men did not race to their full potential in this meet.
"I know we can do better," he said. "We're still trying to get to nationals, but if they run like that, there's no chance on God's green earth we will make it."
In the first meet of the season, the time between the Lobo men's first and fifth runners was only 42 seconds. On Saturday, however, that time stretched to 1:20.
Henry said the difference is something his teams need to work on.
"Both the men's and women's pack times need to get a lot better," he said. "We need to try to get it to about 20 seconds."
There were a couple of performances Henry said were positive for the season. He said Clem stepped up as a leader and finished right where he feels the rest of the team should be.
"He ran a really good race," Henry said. "He really did a nice job for us."
Dylan Rose-Coss was another runner Henry said is showing a lot of promise. Although he hasn't been one of the top runners for the Lobos, Henry believes Rose-Coss has improved a lot and can be one of the men to step up as the season goes on.
"Dylan is taking some pretty good steps," Henry said. "Even though he was our seventh runner, he is showing that he can do some things."
