New Mexico women’s cross country was unable to defend its crown, but still finished in seventh place to secure a ninth straight Top 10 finish at NCAA Nationals on Saturday.
The No. 6-ranked Lobos tailed 310 points to place seventh and registered a season-best spread of just 57.2 seconds, only three points behind No. 10 San Francisco.
“From a team standpoint, if you look at the 2-kilometer and 4-kilometer splits, we ran incredibly as a team,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said in a release.
The Lobos shaved off 154 points in the final two kilometers, after running in 18th place up to that point.
“We moved up over 150 points the last 2K. We were in 18th place at 4K and for our team to do that is awesome,” Franklin said.
Karissa Schweizer from Missouri won the individual title, finishing in 19:41.6. Erin Finn from Michigan finished second at 19:44.2 while Notre Dame’s Anna Rohrer rounded out the top three with a time of 19:44.6.
No. 12 Oregon won the championship by the narrowest of margins. It notched a score of 125 to outpace No. 5 Michigan by a single point. The nation’s top-ranked program, Colorado, finished third with 134 points.
On the men’s side, Northern Arizona placed three runners in the top 25 to win the title with a team score of 125.
The top two runners for New Mexico — Alice Wright and Calli Thackery — both ran to All-American honors with Top 30 finishes in the 6-kilometer race.
“From an individual standpoint, Calli and Alice, they went for it,” Franklin said of the duo’s bid for the individual crown. “Sometimes when you go for it, it doesn’t pan out the way you hope it does. The conditions here were very tough and they went out after it.”
Wright led the Lobos, finishing in 20:13.2 to place 19th, good for her third All-American performance in cross country. She also placed 20th in 2014 and fifth last year.
Wright tied Carole Roybal for the most cross country All-American honors in program history. She also broke the record for most overall when combined with track and field, becoming the only female in UNM track and field/cross country history to be have five All-American honors.
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Thackery was not far behind Wright, as she ran to a 28th-place finish (20:17.4) and received her second All-American performance after placing 15th last year.
Three other scorers added solid performance for Lobos. Sophie Connor finished at 75th place (20:42.1), freshman Alex Buck ran 105th (20:52.0) and Natasha Bernal placed 167th with a time of 21:10.3.
“For Sophie, Alex and Natasha, they were out way in the back early and moved and moved and just kept going and never gave up,” Franklin said.
Also running for Lobos were Kendall Kelly (192nd place, 21:23.5) and Kathryn Fluehr (207th, 21:33.9).
Despite lacking some of the top scorers from last year’s title — particularly top runner and Olympian Courtney Frerichs — the team still found its way to another Top 10 finish amid heavy pressure and expectations.
“You’re getting into rarefied air,” Franklin said. “It shows the women don’t quit. We only had two runners that returned from last year’s championship team and to have five new runners come in is amazing. They grind and they want to be great.”
There’s not much doubt the Lobos still enjoyed an unforgettable season with their great performances, including their ninth straight Mountain West Conference title and a second-place finish at the NCAA Mountain Regionals.
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.
