by Steven Fernandez
Daily Lobo
Jacquelyne Gallegos won her first collegiate race in dominating fashion Saturday at the Lobo Invitational cross country meet, leading the Lobo women's team to a third-place finish.
Gallegos started fast and kept pace with the lead pack early, before surging and putting a big gap between her and the rest of the field. Among the screaming home crowd at the UNM North Golf Course, the senior cruised to the finish line in 21:37 to gain her first college victory. Her time on the 6-kilometer course was 26 seconds faster than the second-place finisher, Victoria Martinez of Adams State.
"I was really happy," Gallegos said. "I was excited because that's the way I wanted to finish the race. It means a lot because I've always wanted to win a college race and it was really cool to do at home."
Head coach Matt Henry said he was proud of Gallegos' performance.
"It was a big day for Jackie," he said. "I'm happy for her to get this in front of the home crowd."
While Gallegos said she was excited about her victory, she is looking toward the rest of the season.
"It shows me that I'm in pretty good shape right now and hopefully I can keep getting better from there," she said.
Her victory was the highlight of the day for the Lobos, but Gallegos and Henry said they were also happy with the team's performance.
The women's team finished in third behind defending Division II national champs Adams State and runner-up Colorado State.
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Henry liked what he saw from the team as a whole and said the women's team has a lot of depth to work with this season.
"I thought the girls ran really well," he said. "Finishing third was pretty exciting. I think we have more than five strong girls. We have about 10 or 11 girls that can really do something."
Junior Timmie Murphy and sophomore Leslie Luna both crossed the line in the top 20. Murphy finished 17th with a personal record time of 23:13, while Luna followed right behind with a 19th-place finish and also a career-best time of 23:19.
Senior Janice Tosa placed 29th in 23:49, trailed closely by sophomore Lindsay Barr who stopped the clock in 23:54 and finished 30th to round out the Lobo scoring. Sophomore Melanie Velarde finished 47th (24:40) and junior Roxann James was seventh on the team placing 58th overall with a time of 24:56.
On the men's side, senior Cameron Clarke led the team to a fifth-place finish out of 14 teams. Clarke placed 23rd and completed the men's 8-kilometer course in 26:12. Junior Stephen Martinez followed in 28th with a time of 26:25.
Senior Nate Clem and junior Juan Ortega came in back-to-back, placing 33rd (26:38) and 34th (26:41), respectively. Sophomore Joseph Garcia was the last person to score for the Lobos with a 35th-place finish and a time of 26:54. Sophomore Dylan Rose-Coss placed 50th (27:49) and Ezra Esquibel was the Lobos' seventh runner finishing in 53rd place (27:59).
Only the first five members of a team to finish score points.
Henry said he was pleased with the men's performance, but also looks to see better things as the season goes on. The time between the Lobos' first runner and fifth and final scorer was only 42 seconds, which Henry said is key to success.
"I thought they ran pretty good," he said. "Any time you lose all those seniors it's going to be tough, but we're not going to make any excuses. If we can keep a good pack time and move up 10 or 15 spots that could be a huge difference."
