UNM TRACK & FIELD
Habtom Samuel, Pamela Kosgei claim 5k titles at Mountain West Indoor Championships
UNM claims titles in DMR as Looney, Grieve advance
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This hasn’t been the busiest indoor season for Habtom Samuel and Pamela Kosgei. New Mexico’s star distance runners have combined for a light six races since December, with the latter only competing in two after a highly successful summer and fall.
If there was any rust for either, it certainly didn’t show Thursday.
Samuel and Kosgei dominated the men’s and women’s 5,000-meter finals at the Mountain West Indoor Track and Field Championships, rolling to a pair of conference titles on the meet’s opening day in Reno, Nevada.
Racing at Reno-Tahoe Convention Center, Samuel finished in 13 minutes and 30.40 seconds for his third-straight league title in the indoor 5k. The all-time fastest 5k runner in Mountain West history also set new facility and meet records to finish ahead of Wyoming’s Jacob White (13:44.84) in second place and UNM’s Evans Kiplagat (13:46.84) in third.
“The consistency, that’s the key,” Samuel said in a postrace interview with the Mountain West’s Karlie Drew. “Every year, just going to the championship, win the championship, (break) the record — that’s really consistency. So I’m really proud of myself and I’m happy being here today.”
The Lobos scored additional points in the team standings with Collins Kiprotich’s 13:59.27, good for sixth place. Vincent Chirchir (14:15.41), Thomas Termote (14:25.96) and Jayden Hernandez (14:51.99) placed 11th, 13th and 18th, respectively.
Kosgei won her second straight league 5k title with an utterly dominant 15:32.15, a run in which she lapped her teammate and second-place finisher Mercy Kirarei (16:14.24). The reigning NCAA champion in the outdoor 5k and 10k led early Thursday before surging in the second half of the race to claim her eighth Mountain West title.
UNM’s Christina Nisoli (16:16.03) finished third to set up an all-Lobo podium while Nicola Jansen (16:20.81) placed fourth in a race that saw the Lobos score 29 points in the women’s team standings.
UNM’s men (29 points) and women (41) lead their respective team standings after Thursday.
“I feel good, especially (because) the three of us (made the podium),” Kosgei told Drew in a postrace interview.
Both Samuel and Kosgei qualified to compete for the 5k national title at NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships (March 13-14) in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Samuel (13.11.78) lost the NCAA 5k final by less than a half a second last season while Kosgei (15:07.57) finished third.
Around the track
- In the men’s distance medley relay (DMR), UNM’s Iker Sanchez, Valin Wittenburg, Rhys Crawford and Joshua Abraham finished in 9:39.63 to eke out a close win in Thursday’s final. The Lobo’s women’s DMR team (Tilly Simpson, Hanna Kiess, Li-Mari Dekker, Marion Jepngetich) also took home a league title, finishing in 11:02.09.
- In the women’s 200 prelims, Taniya Looney (23.43) and Rebecca Grieve (23.68) advanced to Saturday’s final with the second- and fifth-best times of the prelims, respectively. A Pittsburg State transfer, Looney’s 23.43 represents her best 200 finish of the indoor season.
- In the men’s 200 prelims, Brodie Young ran a 21.22 to grab the eighth and final qualifying spot for Saturday’s final.
- In the women’s pole vault finals, Sofia Kazanova finished seventh at 3.99 meters.
Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at @lenaweereider.
