Streaks were continued while others were broken for the New Mexico cross country team during the Mountain West Cross Country Championships on Friday.
For the women, UNM’s runners extended their dominance in the Mountain West for eight consecutive titles. However for the men, the Lobos six straight conference titles came to a close in Reno, Nevada.
The female runners, ranked No. 1 in the nation, have yet to finish below the top spot in the three team scoring tournaments that the team has participated in.
Friday was no different. The Lobos torched the competition, placing seven runners in the top 12 positions. Only the top five runners from each school account for points.
Boise State’s Allie Ostrander took home the top time 21:49.97, followed by UNM's top finisher Courtney Frerichs (22:05.19). Frerichs was tailed by Air Force’s Hannah Everson (22:12.11) to round out the top three.
After that, it was all New Mexico.
Although the team needed only four more solid times in order to take home the 2015 MW trophy, the Lobos placed the next five accounting for fourth through ninth place, headed by Alice Wright (22:24.12). It was Rhona Aukland (22:39.98), Molly Renfer (22:54.01), and Calli Thackery (22:55.14) who concluded the scoring portion for New Mexico.
Heleene Tambet (22:55.47) did not score, but finished in ninth with Emily Hosker-Thornhill not far behind with a time of 23:32.02.
The top five runners put together a dictating score of 24. The closest team, Boise State, finished in second with 71.
“The women did great,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said in a statement. “They did a good job of making sure they got through the course. They ran a really good race. It was a little surreal almost.”
Things weren’t as smooth on the men’s side. After taking home conference hardware the past six years, the male runners finished in fifth place on Saturday, after being picked to take fourth place in the Championships.
Dan Milechman was the top Lobo runner, taking an 11th-place finish in 27:03.44. Graham Thomas finished 26th for UNM (27:56.26), Josh Kerr ended his day in 37th (28:16.58), and Zac Castillo wound up with 47th (29:03.35) as New Mexico’s scorers.
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The Lobos’ score of 120 was quite a distance from Air Force’s top score of 49.
“People may look at the results and say, ‘Oh you got fifth,’” Franklin said in the release. “Well, we did. They gave everything they could. We just weren’t there today.”
Liam Cary-Eaves is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at assistantsports@dailylobo.com or on twitter @Liam_CE.
