Michelle Corrigan sprinted across the finish line last weekend in San Diego, inching past a BYU opponent to solidify the first Mountain West Conference Championship in UNM women's cross country history.
But Corrigan wasn't racing for first place, second place or even third place individually. She was battling for 11th in a points race that would put the Lobos two points ahead of BYU.
The Lobos were one mishap away from losing, head coach Joe Franklin said.
Corrigan, who has been solid throughout the year, tweaked her ankle in the first mile of the race.
A glitch like that could have been all BYU needed to propel itself to victory. However, Corrigan muscled her way through the race, blocking out pain to finish in 22:00, giving the Lobos a slight lead and a victory.
"I have been having problems with my ankle all season," Corrigan said. "It gets to a point where eventually you can run raw on it for a while. It wasn't horrible the entire time."
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Freshman Lacey Oeding and senior Carolyn Boosey were there to pick up Corrigan's slack. The two runners picked a good day to run their best races of the season.
Oeding finished in second with a time of 21:30. Boosey finished four seconds behind in third.
Oeding said it took most of the season, but she finally hit her stride.
"I think it is kind of a confidence thing," she said. "I really didn't know what I was capable of at the beginning of the season, and now I'm starting to get more comfortable with where I am at."
Nicky Archer and Leslie Luna finished seventh and eighth, respectively, rounding out the top-5 Lobo runners.
These five runners were not only awarded as a team. They, as well as Franklin, were honored with individual awards.
Archer, Boosey and Oeding earned first-team All-MWC. Oeding also won the MWC Freshman of the Year. Corrigan and Luna received second-team honors, and Franklin was named MWC Head Coach of the Year.
But on this day it was more about the team championship.
"By far the women's championship (is most important)," Franklin said. "To be the first in anything is a big deal, and they are the first in the history of UNM. They will always be first."
The team doesn't have much time to celebrate and soak in the victory. The Lobos are set to run Saturday in Fort Collins, Colo., for the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships.
Though the field consists of the same top six teams from the conference championship, the regionals will not be a spitting image of last week's run.
Instead of San Diego's humidity and low elevation, the Lobos will have to adjust to the cold, crisp environment of the Rocky Mountains.
The stakes are also higher.
Thirteen at-large bids, in addition to two automatic bids, are on the line.
But the Lobos want to leave nothing to chance and will look to secure one of two automatic bids given to the top two teams at each regional.
"Next week is going to be quite a different race," Oeding said. "But mainly we need to just do what we did this last race and work together."
