This past Friday, the best college cross country teams in the Mountain Region, some of which are the best in the country, gathered on the UNM North Golf Course for the NCAA Mountain Cross Country Regionals. Naturally, both the Lobo men’s and women’s teams were there to take part. The top two teams in each race got an automatic bid to the National Championships this Saturday, so for many teams, this was their last shot to extend their season.
The Lobo men were certainly in that boat. Having struggled for most of the season, their only chance of making nationals was to get the automatic bid. Unfortunately, facing such a tough field, the men ended up in ninth place, ending their season. The women, on the other hand, had already put together a strong enough resume that they had booked their flights to Kentucky weeks ago, so they didn’t have the same sense of urgency. However, because they are so good, they were able to rest several runners and still cruise to a second place finish, just one point behind the winner.
The women went first this time and, as mentioned, had a slightly different lineup than they’ve been using for most of the season. Alice Wright, a potential top five finisher nationally (or better!), sat the race out to rest for this Saturday along with Heleene Tambet and Emily Hosker-Thornhill, who both made the Mountain West all-conference second team a couple of weeks ago. That still left the Lobos with four of their top five runners and three others who would be in the top five for most of the other schools competing. With that much talent, the competing runners were able to take it a little easy and still almost win the race.
In the following plot, we see the results for the top 10 scoring teams, with a breakdown of how they got their score from their top 5 runners. As we can see, Colorado and New Mexico, the top two ranked teams in the nation, were neck and neck for first place and then there was a three team race for third, and a three team race for sixth. You might notice that the Lobos’ bar looks like it is divided up into five equal sections and that’s no mistake. The top five Lobo women scored 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 points.
The next plot shows the results for each runner that competed in the event, with the Lobo runners shown in red. As mentioned, the top five Lobo women all finished in a pack, taking 9th through 13th place. In fact, the top four women, Calli Thackery (21:15.4), Courtney Frerichs (21:15.4), Molly Renfer (21:15.5), and Rhona Auckland (21:15.6) all finished together. Whitney Thornburg was right behind with a time of 21:19.7. Natasha Bernhal (21:49.1) and Lindsey Andrews (22:27.4) took 32nd and 55th respectively, displaying the incredible depth this team has once again. With the runners who sat out, the Lobos have at least 10 runners who could have finished in the top half of this race.
For the men, there was certainly more of a sense of urgency to do well, but as has plagued them all season, the team just doesn’t quite have the depth to keep up with some of the other top teams. Their ninth place finish is a little disappointing given what the team has been doing for the past several years, but if nothing else, they had a few guys gain some valuable race experience that should help the team over the next couple of years.
The plot below shows the results for the top 10 teams at the event. As we can see, the Lobos were pretty solidly in ninth place, which given the way the season has gone, is a solid finish. Especially given that the team has been a little banged up recently. Looking at the teams who were successful in this race, and in basically every race, the top teams have either high end runners, like say UTEP, or a bunch of very good runners that all finish near each other, like BYU. The elite teams are the ones who have both, like Colorado or, an even better example, the Lobo women. This season, the men’s team didn’t really have either, so hopefully next year, either through the development of the returning runners or through recruiting, they can be that sort of team again.
The next plot has the results for each individual runner in the Men’s 10k, with the Lobos shown in red. Once again, the team was fairly spread out, with three groups of two Lobos showing up. Elmar Engholm (30:42.3) once again led the team, finishing 24th, which was good enough to give him all-region honor. Unfortunately, although there seemed like there was a chance he would be invited to run at the National Championships as an individual, he wasn’t selected for the race, ending his senior year on the cross country team. Not too far behind him was Dan Milechman (30:59.3), finishing in 30th, just missing out on all-region honors himself. After that, the team dropped off a bit, as has been the case. Zac Castillo (31:56.5) jumped up to the third spot on the team with a strong run, finishing 51st overall, while Graham Thomas (32:14.2) was close behind him, finishing in 59th. Taylor Potter (33:30.5) rounded out the scoring for the Lobos, finishing in 90th place, and Matthew Bergin (34:03.1), who had to drop out of the Conference Championship with an injury, finished in 98th. Josh Kerr, who had been one of the Lobos’ top five runners all season, was unable to finish the race, which certainly affected the Lobos’ final results. Out of this group, Castillo, Thomas, Potter, and Kerr should be back next year, so with the experience they gained here and another year of development with Coach Franklin, I hope that they will all be back and better than ever next year.
So, that’s the end of the season for the men, but the Ladies will head to Louisville, Kentucky this Saturday in hopes of achieving their ultimate goal: a national championship. I wouldn’t bet against them.