The New Mexico cross country women continued their string of solid performances at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships on Friday in Logan, Utah, finishing second to qualify for their ninth straight nationals appearance.
The men’s team posted a respectable ninth place among 17 teams, but the ranking isn’t enough to advance the squad to an NCAA Championship appearance.
Both the men and women faced a fiercely competitive field in the Mountain Regionals.
On the men’s side, the region owned the nation's top three teams — No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 2 Colorado and No. 3 Brigham Young. For the women, No. 1 Colorado would be their toughest foe, one they’ll meet again at nationals.
“It’s been, traditionally and historically, one of the deepest regions in the country on both the men's and women's side,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said. “It’s not an easy region to get through. You have three teams that can finish on the podium at the NCAA Championships.”
But hardships haven’t derailed the Lobos, as they withstood illness to a key athlete — Calli Thackery — and still captured a bid to defend their national title.
“Unfortunately, Calli Thackery was fighting off an illness,” Franklin said. “We were a little nervous there because we had the illness and a lot of strange things happen in races. So to get through it, and come through relatively unscathed, is good.”
Despite her illness on Thursday, Thackery registered an 11th-place finish in the race (20:26.90) to secure runner-up honors for New Mexico. She scored behind teammate Alice Wright, who won the race.
Wright dominated the 6-kilometer race to finish in 19:59.90 seconds, running over 17 seconds faster than second-place Winny Koech (20:17.10) from University of Texas at El Paso.
“Alice ran exceptionally well,” Franklin said. “She looked very comfortable and controlled. It was a very positive race.”
Natasha Bernal (27th place, 20:56.70), Sophie Connor (34th, 21:13.50) and Alex Buck (36th, 21:14.20) also scored for UNM.
“The women believe in each other and believe that they will get it done,” Franklin said. “It’s something that is part of the culture of the University of New Mexico cross country.”
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Also running for New Mexico were Kendall Kelly (58th, 21:40.30) and Kieran Casey (82nd, 22:15.70). UNM registered 109 points as a team, just two points better than third place Air Force (111 points), while Colorado won 35 points.
On the men’s side, the team needed to finish near the top and could not afford to coast. The men ran as a pack and all five scorers finished within 40 seconds of each other, notching 237 points as a team.
Leading the team was Graham Thomas, finishing at 39th with a time of 31:55.50. Jacob Simonsen was close behind at 42nd place (31:59.50).
The other scorers were Alexander Palm (45th, 32:05.20), Jesus Mendoza (50th, 32:15.80) and Zac Castillo (61st, 32:33.80).
Emil Danielsson (75th, 33:05.20) and Adam Cotton (87th, 33:45.00) also ran for UNM.
Although they did not qualify for nationals, the Lobos ran their best race of the season.
“That was the best performance of the year,” Franklin said. “We had a couple of people struggle, but as a whole, 1 to 4 had a really good gap. I think that was the best they’ve run all year.”
The women’s team will race in the NCAA Championship next Saturday in Terre Haute, Indiana to defend its national championship crown.
Bo Yu is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers cross country and volleyball. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Bo_YuB.
