No. 3 Lobo Men Win Nuttycombe Invitational, Women Finish 9th

MADISON, Wisc. – Behind an electric season debut from Habtom Samuel that saw him beat the field by 7.6 seconds, New Mexico won the Men’s 8K team title at the prestigious Nuttycombe Invitational on Friday afternoon, with the Lobo women placing ninth in the team score behind a 16th-place finish from Marion Jepngetich.

Samuel anchored a 51-point outing for the Lobo men, outpacing all 17 teams in the field that entered this week ranked among the Top 30 in the most recent national USTFCCCA polls. Behind him, all five Lobo point-scorers packed in the Top 25 finishers – Collins Kiprotich (6th, 23:27.0) and Evans Kiplagat (9th, 23:32.6) joined him in the Top 10 and Vincent Chirchir (13th, 23:35.4) and Mathew Kosgei (22nd, 23:39.7) buttoned up the 51-point score.

All five point-scorers were among the Top 12 individuals at the 6K mark and held firm over the final two kilometers to hold off a late push from No. 5 Colorado, which finished second with 149 points. UNM was the only men’s team to finish below triple-digits.

It’s the fifth time New Mexico comes home from Nuttycombe with a team trophy, but the first time the Lobos have won the team score on the men’s side. The UNM women have won Nuttycombe four times, first in 2015 and 2017 – years the Lobos went on to win an NCAA Championship – as well as 2021 and 2022, when they went on to finish third and second at nationals, respectively.

The No. 5 Lobo women – still without leading athlete Pamela Kosgei, who’ll make her season debut in two weeks at Mountain West Championships – held their own against stiff competition in the 6K race, surpassing nine ranked teams in the field with a 312-point team total. Behind Jepngetich’s 16th-place finish and new personal best (20:10.6), Judy Rono placed 37th in her cross country debut, crossing in 20:30.9. Jasmine Wood (20:41.7) also posted a new personal best – an improvement of more than 20 seconds – to finish 52nd, with Mercy Kirarei (93rd, 21:06.7) and Alice Seguin (111th, 21:14.1), closing out the scoring.

All in all, the UNM women outscored No. 14 Utah (316 points), No. 29 Wisconsin (345 points), No. 10 Colorado (355 points), No. 18 Washington (364 points), No. 27 Washington State (365 points), No. 24 Michigan State (365 points), No. 20 Gonzaga (391 points), No. 6 Northern Arizona (418 points) and No. 28 Providence (696 points), finishing ninth among 30 of the nation’s best teams. No. 2 NC State packed all five point-scorers into the Top 20 for a dominant 41-point effort to win the team title.

Crossing sixth and seventh for UNM, South Africans Li-Mari Dekker (21:19.5) and Nicola Jansen (22:14.3) finished 117th and 190th overall – Dekker took 22.4 seconds off her previous best from OSU Cowboy Jamboree last month in just her second 6K race as a Lobo.

FINAL TEAM SCORES (TOP 10 ONLY)

UP NEXT
With regular-season racing now complete, the Lobos look to defend their 2024 men’s and women’s conference title sweep at Mountain West XC Championships in Fresno, Calif. on Oct. 31, with Pamela Kosgei making her long-awaited season debut. All of the action at MWC Championships will be free to stream via the MW Network, with live results available via GoLobos.com/XCResults. Follow @UNMLoboXCTF on IG and X for raceday updates, behind-the-scenes content and more.

NEW MEXICO INDIVIDUAL FINISHERS – “A” RACES

Six Lobos ran new XC personal bests in the women’s and men’s “B” races, with Millie McClelland-Brooks (21:31.7) finishing ninth in the women’s 6K and Joshua Abraham (24:26.3) crossing third in the men’s 8K to lead the way – McClelland-Brooks took 22.5 seconds off her 6K best from Cowboy Jamboree, while Abraham shaved more than 10 seconds off his best from the same meet. Freshman Dylan Maloney (7th, 24:39.9) joined them in the Top 10 with a seventh-place finish – and nearly 20-second PR – in the men’s race. Anya Belisle (29th, 21:57.5) and Mia Torrecillas (40th, 22:11.6) also notched new 6K personal bests, with Matthew Giardina (45th, 25:19.7) also doing the same in the men’s 8K.

NEW MEXICO INDIVIDUAL FINISHERS – “B” RACES