1-2 finish: Ishmael Kipkurui, Habtom Samuel sweep top spots in NCAA 10k final

Last year, Habtom Samuel capped a wildly successful freshman year with a national championship.

This year, it was Ishmael Kipkurui’s turn.

New Mexico’s Kipkurui unleashed a stunning kick over the final lap to win the men’s 10,000-meter final Wednesday at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, finishing in 29 minutes and 7.7 seconds at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

After running the last 400 meters in 53.38 seconds, the freshman from Baringo County, Kenya, now has an individual national title to pair with his 10k collegiate record (26:50.21). He will have the opportunity to compete for another championship Friday in the men’s 5k final.

Samuel — Kipkurui’s teammate and last year’s 10k national champion — finished second with a 29:08.73. UNM’s 1-2 finish yielded 18 points, good for a second place tie in the team standings after Wednesday’s opening day.

“The men have got a reasonable chance of getting on the podium as a team,” UNM track and field head coach Darren Gauson told the Journal last week. “It’s a small team, but it’s a very potent team, with three of the best in the country. If we can dominate the 10k, the 5k and the (steeplechase), we could get on the podium.”

Consider step one taken care of.

In a final that usually lends itself more to strategy than all-out racing, Kipkurui and Samuel ran conservatively for much of the race, with the latter spending most of the final towards the back. It was only with four laps to go that Samuel finally whittled his way up to the front of the pack, with Kipkurui not far behind.

As the pace quickened, the front grew even more congested. Both Samuel and Kipkurui tightly trailed Texas Tech’s Ernest Cheruiyot (29:10.37), Washington State’s Evans Kurui (29:10.91) and Alabama’s Dismus Lokira (29:13.15) with two laps remaining.

It looked as if Cheruiyot would be able to ride out the storm until the final lap, but Kipkurui and Samuel took to the outside and surged past the frontrunner with 300 meters remaining, the latter in pursuit of back-to-back individual titles.

But Kipkurui wouldn’t be denied. The 20-year-old outran his teammate over the final 150 meters to secure his first individual title, the second in two years for UNM.

QUALIFIED: Matthew Kosgei advanced to Friday’s 3,000 steeplechase finals with a 8:31.21 in Wednesday’s semifinals, good for second in his heat.

The freshman from Tambach, Kenya, entered Wednesday with the second-best time in NCAA history (8:22.13).