RENO, Nev. — Pamela Kosgei remained undefeated in her dominant freshman season with an individual title and Habtom Samuel narrowly finished as individual runner-up on the men’s side to anchor third- and second-place team finishes for New Mexico Women’s and Men’s Cross Country at NCAA Mountain Regionals Friday afternoon at Washoe County Golf Course, with the Lobo men securing an automatic qualifying bid to NCAA Championships with their best finish and lowest point total (61 points) since 2010.

In wintry conditions with snow on the ground, Kosgei surged ahead of runner-up Juliet Cherubet (Texas Tech) over the final stretch to win by 13.7 seconds after keeping pace through the first 4.7 kilometers, finishing with a 19:30.9 time to become the eighth woman from New Mexico to win a Mountain Region title and first since Weini Kelati in 2019. In the men’s race, Samuel found himself in a similar wire-to-wire battle with TTU’s Solomon Kipchoge but came 3.3 seconds short of repeating as Regional Champion with a 28:59.2 finish.

With Friday’s results, the No. 6 UNM men are guaranteed a return ticket to NCAA Championships in Madison, Wisc. next week — the No. 10 Lobo women await confirmation that they’ll be joining them tomorrow when the NCAA selection committee announced at-large bids but will do so with little anxiety after outperforming their No. 4 regional ranking and knocking off No. 9 Utah in the team score.

Saturday’s selection show is set to air at 3 p.m. MT tomorrow on NCAA.com, where the complete tournament field will be posted shortly after it is unveiled.

WOMEN’S 6K RECAP
Kosgei held steady behind Texas Tech’s Juliet Cherubet from the onset of the race up until the final kilometer, overtaking her with a 3:50.2 final split to win comfortably by 13.7 seconds after trailing by 0.4 seconds with 1.3K remaining. Through her first four collegiate races, Kosgei has yet to be beaten, winning by an average of 26.95 seconds.

The UNM women held the top spot in the team score through the first 2,200m meters before BYU and Northern Arizona overtook them at the 3.8K mark — they held on to the No. 3 spot the rest of the way even as fourth-place Utah shed 16 points through the remainder of the race thanks to a seventh-place finish from Mercy Kirarei (19:57.7) ahead of Christina Nisoli (29th, 20:28.6), Klara Dess (35th, 20:36.9) and Natalie Bitetti (39th, 20:43.9) to wrap up the team score with 111 points. Sophia McDonnell rounded things out just behind Bitetti in 41st (20:48.9) to provide quality insurance at the No. 6 spot.

MEN’S 10K RECAP
In the first full-length 10K race of the year for the Lobo men, they held off No. 8 Northern Arizona for the second automatic qualifying spot to solidify their No. 2 regional ranking, with Samuel’s runner-up finish ( 28:59.2 ) leading the way ahead of three teammates that all packed into the Top 20 — Vincent Chirchir (7th, 29:29.0), Evans Kiplagat (10th, 29:34.8) and Collins Kiprotich (16th, 29:40.3). Rikus Van Niekerk shed a point over the final kilometer to thread the needle and close the team score at 61 points with a 26th-place finish (29:54.0), with Lukas Kiprop (35th, 30:01.1) and Corne de Fouw (71st, 31:07.2) finishing behind him to ensure all seven Lobo men’s competitors cracked the Top 75.

UNM took the top spot in the team score with 49 points at the 3.4K mark and held it up until the final kilometer, but No. 1 BYU dropped 56 points over the last 6.6 kilometers to rise from fourth in the team score and overtake the Lobos down the back stretch with 52 points in total. The No. 8 Lumberjacks of NAU shed 48 points in the same span, but it wasn’t enough to drop the Lobos late.

WOMEN’S 6K TEAM SCORE MEN’S 10K TEAM SCORE
Team Points Team Points
No. 1 BYU* 52 No. 1 BYU* 52
No. 4 Northern Arizona* 65 No. 6 New Mexico* 61
No. 10 New Mexico 111 No. 8 Northern Arizona 71
No. 9 Utah 122 RV Utah State 152
No. 30 Utah Valley 161 RV Colorado 157
Colorado 169 No. 26 Wyoming 185
Colorado State 189 Texas Tech 190
Texas Tech 225 Colorado 191
Utah State 267 No. 23 Colorado State 202
Montana State 287 Air Force 243