After the flu plagued last week's meet in Minneapolis, Minn., the UNM men's and women's cross country teams took eighth and ninth place in the Notre Dame Invitational on only six days' rest.
Florida State University swept the field in South Bend, Ind., winning the men's and women's tournaments.
The men competed in an 8,000 meter run, and the women ran the 5,000 meter.
The men finished eighth with 240 points, 159 points behind first-place FSU.
The women finished tied for ninth with 257 points, trailing FSU by 169 points.
UNM head coach Joe Franklin said he didn't use last week's flu as an excuse.
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"It not completely gone, but it's getting better," Franklin said about the illness. "That is no reason why we ran the way we ran. Last week it affected us; this week it didn't."
On the men's side, the national rankings told the story.
Heading into this meet, the 29th-ranked Lobos were set to compete against seven higher-ranked teams.
The Lobo men beat out No. 8 Michigan, which finished one slot behind UNM, in ninth. The women tied No. 10 Illinois for ninth.
"Was it a great day? Absolutely not. Was it a bad day? Absolutely not," Franklin said. "We came off a hard week last week. We had some very bright performances, but we also had some performances that weren't so good."
Some of those good performances came from Jacob Kirwa and David Bishop, who finished only three seconds apart in 33rd and 37th place.
Junior Brock Hagerman rounded off the top three for the Lobos with a time of 24:34. Hagerman transferred to UNM after making a name for himself as the Big East Freshman of the Year at Notre Dame in 2006.
UNM runners Rory Fraser and Lee Emanuel finished 56th and 66th with times of 24:39 and 24:45.
The top five Lobo runners were separated by a season-low 20 seconds.
"That pack just needs to be a little farther up," Franklin said. "If you just take five seconds off everybody's time, we are beating a lot of people."
The women's side of the meet was more stacked. The 18th-ranked women's team matched up against 11 nationally-ranked teams.
There were no surprise victories on the women's draw. UNM beat out No. 20 Texas Tech, No. 25 Boston College and No. 28 North Carolina.
Franklin said the Lobos' No. 18 ranking shouldn't be in jeopardy.
"We'll probably stay around the same in the women's side," he said.
Nicky Archer finished the day on top for the Lobos in 27th place, running the 5k in 17:13. Carolyn Boosey placed 44th; Lacey Oeding finished 52nd; Michelle Corrigan finished 59th; and Ashley Gibson finished 75th to round out the women's field of 186 runners.
"We ran well in places, but we couldn't hit it all," Franklin said. "Luckily we have four weeks until the Mountain West Conference Championship, so that's a lot of time."
