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Lobos Begin Final Postseason Push At MWC Championship Meet
Gonzales Looking To Become First Lobo In 38 Years To Win Conference Meet
Oct. 27, 2004
Complete Release in PDF Format
UPCOMINGAfter a month of preparation and positioning, the University of New Mexico men's and women's cross country teams begin the most important part of their season this Saturday, Oct. 30, at the Mountain West Conference Championship meet in San Diego. San Diego State was scheduled to host its first cross country championships in 2003 before wildfires forced officials to move the meet to Albuquerque. The action at Morley Field gets underway with the women's 6,000-meter race at 10 a.m., followed an hour later by the men's 8K.The men's race promises to be one of the best in the country this weekend with four top-25 teams vying for the MWC crown. Only the Big 10 Conference (No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 7 Michigan, No. 13 Indiana, No. 19 Minnesota) has as many top-25 teams as the Mountain West. Picked second in the preseason poll (a program best), the 23rd-ranked Lobo men will be gunning for their first conference title since 1988. However, New Mexico will have to overcome several strong teams. No. 10 BYU was the preseason favorite, while 12th-ranked Air Force is the defending champion and was picked to finish second along with UNM. No. 17 Colorado State, meanwhile, was voted a close fourth in the preseason rankings. Though not ranked in the national polls, both Utah and Wyoming have been ranked among the Mountain Region top-15 this fall. The Utes are currently 10th in the regional rankings. New Mexico only ran head-to-head against two MWC teams during the regular season, both at the NCAA Pre-Nationals on Oct. 16. UNM finished 14 spots higher than Utah and was five places below Air Force in Terre Haute, Ind. On the women's side, No. 12 BYU and No. 23 Colorado State lead the field, while Air Force and Utah are both ranked among the Mountain Region top-10. The Cougars have won four national titles since 1997 and will be running for their 17th straight conference championship. New Mexico was tabbed in the preseason to finish sixth in the league, ahead of San Diego State and UNLV. The Lobos faced four teams in the league earlier this season, falling to CSU, Air Force and Utah two weeks ago at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, and BYU at the Great American Cross Country Festival on Oct. 1 in Raleigh, N.C. GONZALES TO MAKE A RUN AT HISTORYFresh off the biggest cross country victory of his career at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, senior Matt Gonzales will attempt to add to his Lobo legacy on Saturday by becoming the first New Mexico runner in 38 years to win a conference cross country race. Gonzales, who was picked by Track & Field News magazine as its favorite to win the national crown this year, will likely be the favorite on Saturday.Though only three men in 42 years of UNM cross country have brought home an individual conference title, New Mexico runners won the men's race at the Western Athletic Conference championships four years in a row from 1963-66. Ed Coleman was the first to do so, leading the Lobos to their first WAC championship in 1963. The legendary John Baker followed with a win in 1964, though UNM finished fourth in the team standings. George Scott then led New Mexico to back-to-back WAC titles in 1965 and `66, winning both years. A two-time first team all-MWC runner, Gonzales has finished in the top-5 in both conference meet appearances. As a sophomore in 2001, he quietly moved from the middle of the pack to finish second behind Utah's Teren Jameson in front an appreciative home crowd in Albuquerque. Two years ago in Provo, Utah, Gonzales finished fifth behind teammate Cameron Clarke (3rd), despite battling a severe case of Achilles tendonitis, which forced him onto crutches following the race. MEET INFORMATION/RESULTSComplete information and results from the 2004 Mountain West Conference Cross Country Championships can be found on the official website of the Mountain West Conference:MWC Championships Meet Tracker New Mexico Conference Championships HistoryThe UNM men and women will be competing at the Mountain West Conference Championships for the sixth time on Saturday. The following is the Lobos' year-by-year results at the MWC Championship meet. Fifth-year head coach Matt Henry took over the program in 2000.
The New Mexico men won five Western Athletic Conference titles, with four coming from 1963-68 and the last in 1988. Since joining the MWC in 1999, the Lobo runners have earned all-conference honors three times. Matt Gonzales was a first team honoree in 2001 and 2002, while Ben Ortega was a second team selection in 2002. The UNM women, meanwhile, have never won a conference title, but finished second at the High Country Athletic Conference meet in both 1983 and `84. Last year, first team honoree Sarah Gonzales became the first all-MWC runner for the women's team and first all-conference honoree of any kind since 1996. MOUNTAIN WEST RESPECTThe hype began in earnest on Aug. 24 for the University of New Mexico men's cross country team as the Lobos were picked to finish second, their highest rank ever, in the 2004 Mountain West Conference preseason coaches poll. New Mexico received 19 points, including one first place vote, to tie defending champion Air Force. The UNM women (27 points) were ranked sixth in the preseason poll, just one point behind fourth-ranked Utah and Wyoming, and four shy of No. 3 Air Force. The BYU men (23) and women (49) were the favorites in both coaches polls.UNM was picked to finish last in the MWC, earning six votes (one over the minimum total), just four years ago in Matt Henry's first year as head coach in the fall of 2000. The Lobos previous best rank in the preseason poll was a third place prognostication in 2002. UNM won its first three meets and rose as high as 27th in the country before a wave of injuries took its toll on the team. The Lobos went on to place third at the MWC meet and missed advancing to NCAA Championships by six points at the regional meet. With its top four runners all redshirting in 2003, the UNM men placed fourth at the conference meet, matching its preseason ranking once again. The women's team placed fifth, also matching the coaches' preseason prediction. LAST TIME OUT (at NCAA Pre-Nationals)TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Senior Matt Gonzales was in All-American form, leading the University of New Mexico men's cross country team to an impressive 10th place showing at the Pre-Nationals meet on Oct. 16 at the LaVern Gibson Championship course. Gonzales won the 8,000-meter race with a career best time of 23:47.2 to help the Lobos down six of the 12 nation's top-30 teams in the Blue race. On the women's side, fellow senior Jacquelyne Gallegos turned in the finest race of her career, finishing 15th out of 246 runners with a personal record 6K time of 21:00.Racing for the first time since the Sept. 11 season-opener, Gonzales showed no signs of rust as he bested 255 runners in the elite field for his first victory since Oct. 5, 2001. The Santa Fe native's win was a tight one as Colorado's Brent Vaughn finished less than a second behind with a time of 23:48.1. Vaughn, however, led the sixth-ranked Buffaloes to an impressive victory with a score of 63 points. Gonzales' teammates did a solid job keeping pace as the UNM top five finished with pack spread of 1:38. Freshman Shadrack Biwott placed 51st with a time of 24:48.2 and senior Ben Ortega made a successful return to action after his LSAT exam forced him to miss the last meet. Ortega finished 16 seconds behind Biwott in 79th place, just eight seconds ahead of fellow senior Sean Flaherty (96th - 25:12.5). Junior Cameron Clarke capped the scoring for the Lobos, placing 117th with a time of 25:25.7. New Mexico scored 344 points as it bested 26 teams, including No. 22 William & Mary, No. 23 Miami (Ohio), No. 26 Georgia, No. 27 Montana, No. 28 Washington and No. 29 Central Michigan. Gallegos, meanwhile, took a big step towards returning to the NCAA Championship meet for the first time since 2001 with her performance on Saturday. The Pojoaque native shined on the national stage in her best race since securing an automatic berth to nationals as a true freshman at the 2001 Mountain Region Championships. Gallegos' UNM teammates ran hard as freshman Lindsay Barr (184th - 23:05.7) and sophomore Riann Lucy (213th - 23:36.0) both recorded career-best 6K times. Junior Janice Tosa (192nd) was also solid, finishing with a time of 23:12.3. True freshman Sheyenne Lewis, meanwhile, had a strong varsity debut for the Lobos, clocking a time of 23:42.1 (219th). Senior Vanessa Funston (231st - 23:56) and freshman Stasia Ploskonka (243rd - 24:39.3) rounded out the UNM top seven as the Lobos finished 34th with a score of 823. No. 4 Colorado held off sixth-ranked Michigan, 94-109, for the team title. CLIMBING THE NATIONAL CHARTSThree days after knocking off six top-30 teams at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet, the UNM men's cross country team was rewarded with a No. 23 ranking in the national cross country coaches poll on Oct. 19. New Mexico received 123 votes to earn its highest ranking in 15 years.The Lobos had received at least one vote in every national poll this year, despite never having its top seven runners race together in the first three meets of the fall. UNM entered the Pre-Nationals receiving just four votes in the national poll, which was the equivalent of a No. 40 ranking. Senior Matt Gonzales made a triumphant return from a knee injury, however, winning the Pre-Nationals Blue race a week after he was tabbed by Track & Field News as the favorite to win the NCAA Championship meet. More importantly, the Lobos' five scoring runners ran a tight race with only 1:38 separating Gonzales, true freshman Shadrack Biwott, senior Ben Ortega, senior Sean Flaherty and junior Cameron Clarke. After laboring in obscurity for nearly a decade, the Lobo men's team created a buzz once again among national cross country coaches in 2002. New Mexico was ranked as high as 27th in the country (Oct. 1) following its victory at the Stanford Invitational, but fell from the national top-30 after injuries to three of its top-five runners limited the squad's effort at the Pre-National Invitational (Oct. 19). The Lobos received votes in every Mondo Men's Cross Country poll in 2002, finishing the season ranked 34th in the nation with 14 votes. Early in the `02 season, UNM earned 44 votes to move into a tie (with Michigan) for 29th place in the Sept. 17 national rankings, the team's first appearance in top-30 since 1989, when it was ranked as high as 14th in the country. The Lobos also received 11 votes in the 2002 preseason coaches poll, it's first in the national poll since 1993. PROGRAM-BEST THREE LOBOS TAKE HOME MWC ATHLETE OF THE WEEK AWARDSFollowing his performance at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet, senior Matt Gonzales became the third Lobo to win the Mountain West Conference Cross Country Athlete of the Week award this year, the highest number of honorees for New Mexico since it joined the league in 1999. Gonzales was also the first two-time selection under head coach Matt Henry.Freshman Shadrack Biwott and senior Jacquelyne Gallegos swept the weekly honors earlier this year on Sept. 16. Gallegos was the first UNM woman, under Henry, to win the weekly honor. Biwott, an Eldoret, Kenya, native, won at the Lobo Invitational on Sept. 11 in Albuquerque, capturing his collegiate debut and leading the Lobos to the team victory. He finished the 8K race in 24:44, edging out Gonzales at the tape, while finishing a full 40 seconds ahead of the third place finisher. Gallegos, from Pojoaque, N.M., had a triumphant comeback performance at the Lobo Invite, finishing third overall (out of 100 runners). She posted a career-best time of 22:13 in the 6K race, 16 seconds better than her previous career-high set in 2001. It was her highest finish since the 2002 Lobo Invite, where she finished second. HAIL TO THE VICTORSIn the five years (1995-99) prior to Matt Henry's arrival as head cross country coach at New Mexico, the Lobo men's team had notched just one meet victory. However, since Henry took control of the program in 2000, the men have captured nine team titles, including the 2004 season-opener, the Lobo Invitational. UNM cruised to a 32-point victory over runner-up Texas A&M, which finished 19th at last year's NCAA Championships, and was 70 points better than the rest of the 12-team field.Last year, the Lobo men won back-to-back mid-season races. UNM defeated Wyoming and Utah in a pre-conference triangular meet in San Diego, then defeated 11 squads at the Canyon West Classic in Tempe, Ariz. two weeks later. The Lobos scored an average of 28.5 points in their two wins. The Lobo women also got into the act in 2003, earning their first team title under Henry at the Canyon West Cross Country Classic on Oct. 18. New Mexico scored a season-low 31 points and ran with a season-low pack spread of 55 seconds to pick up its first win since the 1998 season-opener at UTEP. In 2002, the men of New Mexico opened the season undefeated through three meets (UNM did not field a full team in its fourth meet, the Cowboy Jamboree) before finishing 17th at the Pre-National Invitational. After opening with another dominating win at the Lori Fitzgerald, UNM followed with a victory over a 12-team field in their home-opener, the UNM Lobo Invitational, then notched an impressive first place finish ahead of 29 teams at the 29th annual Stanford Invitational. SIBLING RIVALRYWhile many of New Mexico's homegrown athletes have been running together for nearly a decade, no two runners are more familiar with one another than brothers Nick and Stephen Martinez. Nick (22), a fifth-year senior, was one of head coach Matt Henry's first signees and has been a stalwart member of the men's team since his true freshman season in 2000. Stephen (19), meanwhile, made his freshman debut last year and along with Nick, is one of the Lobos' top-seven runners this fall. Both men also enjoyed stellar high school careers at Pojoaque (N.M.) High School before joining Henry's program. Nick was a two-time all-state honoree in cross country, while Stephen captured a pair of state titles for the Elks.The two brothers ran neck-and-neck in the first three meets of the year. Stephen opened the season with a bang, placing 12th at the Lobo Invite, four places and 19 seconds ahead of Nick. A week later, the elder Martinez placed 11th at the NMSU Kachina Classic, just one second ahead of his younger brother. Stephen rallied back, however, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Nick at the Great American XC Festival in the last head-to-head matchup between the brothers Martinez. THE HEART OF A CHAMPIONSenior Jacquelyne Gallegos would probably earn the Comeback Runner of the Year award if the Mountain West Conference had such an honor, but instead she may just have to be content with a return to the NCAA Championship meet for the first time in three years.As a highly touted true freshman in 2001, Gallegos established herself as New Mexico's top runner on the women's side. She led the Lobos in three meets and recorded four of the team's top-10 6K times. Gallegos placed 19th at the MWC Championships and then finished 19th once again at the elite NCAA Mountain Region Championships to earn an automatic bid to the national meet. One of the youngest Lobos ever to compete on the national stage, the 18-year-old Gallegos finished 217th out of 244 runners. Gallegos was enjoying a terrific start to the 2002 season, having led the team in its first two meets with a pair of top-5 finishes, including a career-best runner-up performance at the 2002 Lobo Invite. The following week, however, Gallegos was involved in a near fatal auto accident on Sept. 21, and suffered broken bones in her back and pelvis. On crutches for several weeks, Gallegos didn't even begin to jog again for five months. Last year, she endured a grueling and often frustrating fall, finishing just three races. However, Gallegos battled back to notch her best performance in the season-finale at the Mountain Region Championships and hasn't slowed down since. Following a solid indoor season, Gallegos earned outdoor all-conference honors on the track (1,500m) for the first time in her career, serving official notice that she was indeed back. This fall the Pojoaque, N.M. native opened the season with a pair of top-5 finishes and has lead the team in all four races. On Oct. 16, she turned in one of the best races of her career, clocking the second-fastest 6K time in the MWC (21:00) to finish 15th at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet. Head coach Matt Henry said Gallegos is running better than ever and will make a serious run at an NCAA berth in November. Henry also said that he and his staff will appeal to the NCAA to seek a fifth year of eligibility for Gallegos to replace her ruined 2002 season. With a little goodwill and empathy from the NCAA office, Henry hopes Gallegos can return in 2005 to put a story book ending on her memorable UNM career. WELCOME BACK GONZALESAfter a year off from cross country competition, senior Matt Gonzales showed no rust in his return to off-road racing at the Lobo Invitational. The four-time track and cross country All-American and freshman phenom Shadrack Biwott quickly left the field behind, cruising to the finish line 40 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. Gonzales' second place performance was his best finish in three years, since earning the silver medal at the 2001 Mountain West Conference Championships."It was a little different being on the course again after so much on the track the past year, but it felt really good.," said Gonzales. "It was an easy race for us. Shadrack was awesome. We decided to come in together and just finish up strong." Seniors Ben Ortega and Nick Martinez also made a successful return to cross country after sitting out in 2003. Ortega finished third on the team and ninth overall, while Martinez was the Lobos' seventh runner, placing 16th overall. The fourth Lobo coming off a 2003 redshirt season, junior Cameron Clarke, was held out of the race due to illness. "It was strange," said Ortega of his return to cross country. "One minute I felt great and the next I was dead, but all-in-all it wasn't too bad for a season-opener. We can still do a lot better as a team and I think we're just scratching the surface." HOMEGROWN LOBOSUniversity of New Mexico head coach Matt Henry has built the UNM program by using his greatest natural resource: New Mexico high school distance runners. Of the 40 runners on the 2004 roster, all but four were products of New Mexico high schools, including Kenyan Shadrack Biwott. Every NCAA Championship competitor, All-American and all-Mountain West honoree under Henry has hailed from the Land of Enchantment.
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