The New Mexico cross country team expects to polish its weapons at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational Friday in Madison, Wisconsin, and it gets ready for the upcoming championships.
“I expect the team to have better performance this weekend,” head coach Joe Franklin said.
The women’s team stormed to a dominant performance at Wisconsin last year with a team score of 32 points, and aims to pick up wins this Friday to compete for a ticket to the NCAA Championship.
“We’re prepared to go in and show the NCAA what New Mexico is,” UNM sophomore Natasha Bernal said about the Wisconsin Invite. “We’re ready.”
The latest National Coaches’ Poll ranks UNM women’s team No.11. However, standings have never been a concern for the Lobos.
“I don’t think we are really worried about rankings,” Bernal said. “We have Notre Dame under our belt.”
Bernal finished 62nd (17:17.3) and scored for the Lobos at Notre Dame’s invitational last month. The women’s team had a very solid performance and finished in fourth place overall.
“A really good place to start,” Bernal said of the results at Notre Dame. “Good to see where the team is at, where the individuals are at.”
The Notre Dame Invite was the first official race for the Lobos this season, and represented a good starting point for the team.
“It was a very good performance,” Franklin said of UNM at Notre Dame. “And it was a little bit of we call ‘rust busters.’”
The Lobos removed some rust at Notre Dame thanks to solid performances from Alice Wright (second place) and Calli Thackery (fifth). However, there was a clear a gap in the team’s spread between the two top finishers and the other three scorers.
“They are all very young and new — the goal is to get that gap smaller,” Franklin said. “The best teams in the country have very small gaps between one and seven and one and five ,like us last year.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The Lobos continued to work hard in their practices, running in pairs so as to close the gap for this weekend.
“We have they work together in pairs,” Franklin said of the strategy. “Work together and find each other, so that they can move together.”
Franklin agreed that it’s easier for the athletes in cross country when they have someone next to them that they trust.
“The expectation is to go out and find your teammates, let other people do the work and work very hard the last 1,000 meters,” Franklin said. “If they do those things, the result will be very positive."
The Lobos will rely heavily on Wright, who earned Mountain West Women's Athlete of the Week honors.
Several of her teammates, including Thackery, Bernal, Sophie Connor and Alex Buck — who all scored in the last meet — can be leaned on as well.
Kathryn Fluehr, Kendall Kelly, Kyoko Koyama and Kieran Casey are also expected to compete.
“Not only do you have Alice, but Calli is not far behind her,” Franklin said. “That’s a great team led by two very good runners at one-two.”
Wright will face great challenges this week from Anna Rohrer (Notre Dame), Brenna Peloquin (Boise State) and Charlotte Prouse (Washington), some of the top runners in the country.
“She will be running with some women this weekend that can challenge her in the NCAA championship,” Franklin said of Wright’s competition at the front of the pack. “So it will be another very good race this weekend.”
The head coach cited No. 1 Providence, No. 3 North Carolina State and No. 4 Washington as the Lobos’ main competitors in the women's 6-kilometer races.
“A very similar race to Notre Dame, a little deeper,” Franklin said about Friday’s meet. “But the tops are very similar.”
The head coach said he said similar expectations on the men’s side.
“The same thing, the goal is to run together this weekend,” Franklin said. “They are going to run together for the first part of the race, and try to move after.”
Franklin said the men’s squad is very young, and has a lot of work to do. The team finished 23rd two weeks ago.
Senior Graham Thomas should provide some stability,returning to the lineup after missing Notre Dame due to illness.
SeniorsAdam Cotton and Jesus Mendoza, who led the team in the last meet, should also provide some reinforcement.
Zac Castillo, Emil Danielsson, Jared Garcia and Alexander Palm are also expected to compete in men’s eight-kilometer race.
The New Mexico men will have its hands full, as the field features favorites such as No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 3 BYU and No. 7 Portland. But the head coach seemed to anticipate a strong showing from the men..
“We will be better than where we were two weeks ago at Notre Dame,” Franklin said.
Bo Yu is a sports reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Bo_YuB.
