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Women Lobo Cross Country and Basketball by Arnie Leshin

University of New Mexico women’s cross country team wins second national championship behind individual winner, Ednah Kurgat Saturday morning at Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, Ky.

Second title since 2015, third since ski team in 2005, with sophomore Kurgat running 6-kilomers in 19:19.5

Arnie Leshin

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

Move over ski team, glad they revived your program, but kudos again go the women’s cross country team of the University of New Mexico. It won its second national championship in the last three years, and now the school has won two of these, plus the 2005 ski team national title.

And that’s it, no other NCAA championships for the Albuquerque school.

The Lobo ladies accomplished this on Saturday morning over the E.P Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville, Ky., and cloudy skies sent the women off a hour later than scheduled.

No matter, UNM had the 6-kilomer winner in sophomore Ednah Kurgat, and she was followed by freshman Wenini Kelati, who took seventh, junior Charlotte Prouse, who finished 12th, and the lone senior in her fourth national race, Alice Wright, came in 14th. The fifth Lobo was freshman Alondra Negron Texidor, and her 85th place was important in the team scoring.

With that, UNM compiled 90 points, 15 better than second place University of San Francisco, while Colorado scored 139 for third and fourth-place Stanford totaled 165.

Wearing number 391, Kurgat raced to the lead at the halfway mark and maintained it the rest of the way in the time of 19:19.5. It was the fastest time since the race went from 5k to 6k.

“I’m very happy with the way I ran today,” Kurgat said, “and even more so because we also won the team championship. We ran well all season and this was the best way to finish.”

A transfer from Liberty University, Kurgat had to sit out last year as a redshirt. But two years ago, she ran for Liberty in a national meet that included New Mexico. This season, she ran five races and ran all of them. This race, her winning margin was 7.51.

“This is a different kind of team than the one in 15,” said head coach Joe Franklin, “we had some real good individuals than, but this team has just run as a team and has done well on every course.”

Kurgat, from Eldoret, Kenya, becomes the first individual national champion from UNM.

“I’m cooling down now,” she said, “but during the race I was a little worried about being able to set the pace, staying in front, even finishing strong. Now I feel much better. Wow.”

She joins the top-40 list that makes up the All-America Team. So do Lobos’ Kalati, Prouse and Wright. Kalati hails from Leesburg, Va., Prouse from London Ontario, Canada, and Wright from Worcester, England.

Others UNM harriers who also joined the field were sophomore Alex Buck, freshman Sophie Eckel, and senior Kieran Casey.

An up-and-coming freshmen Elizabeth Reyes, of Taos, is also on the squad but probably realizing that she’s biding for a spot on a national champion. Reyes was one of the top runners in the state at Taos High, finishing among the top three her last three seasons, and the Tigers winning state team honors. She’s short but has a big heart and is very competitive. She belongs.

It was UNM’s eighth straight top-10 performance at the NCAA championships, making it the longest active streak in the country. It was the program’s third top-three result in the last four years and the fifth national title for a Mountain West Conference women’s team.

Slide over ski team, they’re back.

* * *

UNM undefeated women’s basketball team keeps it going with fourth straight win, downing visiting  New Mexico State, 86-75, at the Pit Saturday night

Balanced attack leads way for the Lobos, with Cherise Beynon having high of 27 points to go with nine assists

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

The University of New Mexico gets a short break before playing host to a Thanksgiving women’s basketball tournament, and on Saturday night it turned away visiting state-rival New Mexico State, 86-75, to continue undefeated in four starts.

The balanced attack of four players in doubles figures was led by Cherise Beynon. She scored the game-high 27 points, added nine assists, and converted 8-of-10 free throws. Tesha Buck and Alex Lapryrolerie added 17 points each.

UNM went on a 20-2 run in the first half and increased the lead to 23 points. A late Aggies run cut the gap to 65-58, but it proved to be too little too late as New Mexico State dropped to 1-2. While the Aggies turned the ball over 17 times, the Lobos had only six.

They have now scored at least 80 points in about each contest, including exhibitions. The tournament field will include Wichita State, UC-Irvine and Illinois.

Monique Mills tossed in 20 points to lead New Mexico State.

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