The UNM cross country team is running to the top.
After one of the most successful seasons in school history, which included sweeps at the Mountain West Championships and Mountain Region Championships by the men and women, both Lobo squads will head into the 2011 season ranked in the Top 25.
“It’s a big mountain to climb, and it’s a big mountain to fall,” head coach Joe Franklin said.
The Lobos have been climbing that mountain since Franklin arrived at UNM in 2007. Last season, the women finished fifth overall in the NCAA championships, the highest place in school history.
This season, the Lobos are one of the preseason favorites, ranked No. 2 in the nation by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
“The mountain region as a whole is some of the best cross country in the nation,” Franklin said. “To be considered with that group, it just shows that we’re making progress and that’s the whole goal.”
Franklin said four of his five top runners, Natalie Gray, Ruth Senior, Sarah Waldron and Kirsty Milner, aren’t new to Lobo cross country, and that this is crucial in making a run in the NCAA.
Senior, who finished 33rd in the NCAA and earned All-American honors, said preseason rankings don’t matter.
“It’s nice to be recognized that we have a strong team, but it doesn’t actually mean anything,” she said. “We’ve got to go out there and run to that level.”
Senior said the road to success is a simple one.
“If we can keep everyone healthy and keep everyone going the direction they are right now, we’re going to be right up there,” she said.
The men’s team is coming off a 16th-place finish in the NCAA last fall. This season, the men are ranked No. 21 in the country, but Franklin said it’ll be tough having lost key athletes in Rory Fraser, Keith Gerrard and David Bishop.
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Franklin said Sean Stam, of the up-and-comers this season, will help fill in the holes.
“We had a ton of guys that left that were really good,” Stam said.
“For me, it’s a big step and it’s also something I’ve wanted — to be there for the team and take that spot over so we could keep on being a great team.”
The 2011 journey for the Lobos begins tomorrow as they host the Lobo College and High School Cross Country Invitational.
The race will be held at the North UNM Golf Course and will include a race for the community, another for high school athletes, and will end with the Lobos, UTEP, New Mexico State and other colleges getting their first taste of the new season.
Franklin said as of Friday morning that 1,348 runners are set to participate.
“Very rarely do kids in New Mexico get a chance to run on grass,” Franklin said. “To have the University of New Mexico North Golf Course be so accommodating to us is a great opportunity for everybody.”
Stam said it’s a learning tool for the athletes who take part in the race, especially the freshmen.
“A lot of the younger kids on the team get to see where they’re at,” Stam said. “I think it’s also kind of cool that a lot of high school kids come out and watch the collegiate races.”
Gray and Waldron won’t be running tomorrow, but Senior said she wouldn’t miss it.
“There’s no reason for me not to run,” she said. “I like running the course. I like racing. I’ll race as much as I can.”
UNM Cross Country
Saturday
Men 9:55 a.m.
Women 10:30 a.m.
UNM North Golf Course
