Conference titles will be on the line at the Mountain West Cross Country Championships this Friday in Reno, Nevada.
The women’s team, ranked No. 1 in the nation, are the conference favorite. Among the Mountain West field, the Lobos will battle Boise State, No. 9 in the nation. The men’s team currently resides at the four spot in the conference behind Boise State, Air Force and Colorado State.
UNM head coach Joe Franklin said contending for conference championships and competing at nationals were goals the Lobos set at the start of the season.
“They’re in a really good spot. It’s the start of the championship season,” Franklin said. “The men are gonna have a very tough battle with Boise State. They have to beat three nationally ranked teams to be champions and they have got to get in position to dethrone the favorites.”
Senior Courtney Frerichs said she has not run this course before and doesn’t think anyone else on the team has either. Running a course for the first time might add a degree of difficulty. She said the team is very good at observing details and making a plan to attack the course.
She said the team has been training hard to be ready for Friday, as well as the other upcoming events. She said the team is special because it has put aside individual pursuits and when they race, it’s all about the team.
“Our endurance is really awesome right now, and I think that’s where we’re gonna be a lot stronger than other teams,” Frerichs said. “We’re finding that we really working well together in the races. We are looking forward to winning the conference title as a team.”
Frerichs said she thinks the program is in a really good place right now. She said that obviously winning is fun, but that it’s really been more enjoyable because of their commitment to each other.
The men’s team will be looking to extend its streak of Mountain West championships as well. Frerichs said a win for the men’s side would boost the men’s confidence and give them just what the need going in to the regional meet.
Graham Thomas said it was very important for the men to continue showing improvement in closing the gap between its runners. He said winning on Friday would do a lot for the team for several reasons.
“I think we’ve won six years in a row and it would be heartbreaking to be the team that ends that,” Thomas said. “We’re hoping we can pack our five in between their gap. If we beat (the favorites), we’ll pick up points in the (NCAA scoring) system.”
The men will start competing at 11 a.m., running 8 kilometers. The 6K women's race begins at 11:45 a.m.
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Robert Maler is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @robert_maler.
