Both New Mexico cross country teams finished with solid performances at the very competitive Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, as the women took 4th and the men won the open race on Friday in Madison, Wisconsin.
“It was a great day,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said. “We made a lot of progress.”
Women’s cross country won the event last year, but were unable to defend their crown at the intense meet. Nonetheless, the runners were solid, earning their second fourth-place finish of the year.
The race at Wisconsin had an outcome similar to the Joe Piane Invitational at Notre Dame, in which UNM had two top-10 finishers — Alice Wright claiming second place (20:01.9), and Calli Thackery ninth (20:19.8).
Wright finished with her second straight runner-up performance of the season, which leads the team. She was just 1.1 seconds behind champion Brenna Peloquin (20.00.8) from Boise State.
“Alice and Calli were very good...with Alice challenging for the win,” Franklin said. “They’re proven, elite runners.”
The No. 11 Lobos asserted themselves as competitors for the NCAA Championship in November, finishing with a team score of 207 points and a spread of 1:18.8 between their five scorers.
Franklin said the success is owed to the whole team, rather than just Wright and Thackery.
Sophie Connor, Natasha Bernal and Alex Buck rounded out the scoring for the Lobos. Connor finished in 40th place (20:53.6), Bernal 63rd (21:04.8) and Buck ran a respectable 21:20.7 to finish 93rd.
Kathryn Fluehr (110th, 21:32.1) and Kendall Kelly (135th, 21:48.7) also competed for the Lobos.
No. 4 Washington took the title with 124 points, while No. 3 NC State ranked second (166 points) and No. 1 Providence (170 points) placed third.
On the men’s side, the Lobos chose not to compete in the championship race, but the open “B” race instead.
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“We ran that race so our kids could see each other,” Franklin said. “In the championship race this weekend, you can't find each other and you can hide, so to speak. But you can't hide in the ‘B’ race and they were able to fight with other teams and compete with each other.”
The men’s squad achieved the coach’s goal of running with each other, and turned in a strong team performance to win the open “B” race.
“To say that things aren’t going in the right direction would be a misstatement,” Franklin said. “They did an unbelievable job.”
Senior Graham Thomas did not compete at Notre Dame due to illness, but rebounded on Friday to finish seventh (25:06.8), helping guide UNM to victory in the eight-kilometer race.
Senior Jesus Mendoza was right behind Thomas in 10th place (25:15.7), garnering the Lobos’ No. 2 scoring slot, just as he did at Notre Dame.
The other three scorers were freshman Jacob Simonson, redshirt junior Zac Castillo and redshirt freshman Alexander Palm — all of whom finished in the top 20.
The pack of Lobos ran together as the trio, and all crossed the line within seconds of each other. Simonson finished in 15th place (25:26.3), Castillo ran 16th (25:30.0), and Palm crossed moments later (25:31.9) to finish 17th.
The Lobo men ended with a team score of 24 points and achieved one pre-race goal — to limit its team spread to 25.1 seconds between its scorers.
Jared Garcia (36th, 25:51.7), Adam Cotton (43rd, 26:06.7) and Emil Danielsson (55th, 26:29.3) also ran for the Lobos.
The Lobos will head to Falcon Crest Golf Club in Kuna, Idaho to compete for the 2016 Mountain West Cross Country Championships on Friday, Oct. 28.
"If you look at how both teams have done historically at this meet, the next month of the season looks very positive," Franklin said.
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.
