New Mexico Runners on the National Stage

Millington last Fall

This last weekend there was some New Mexico rep at a few of the slew of huge meets going on around the country. Thought I'd pen a note of recognition.

The brightest performances came from a couple of UNM Lobo runners up at the University of Washington Indoor Invite. Senior Ross Millington torched a 4^th place finish in the mens 3000m finishing in 7:49.11. The performance ranks right about top-20 all-time for a collegian indoors, and sets a new UNM school record breaking the previous standard held by former NCAA champion Lee Emanuel (2010) (7:51:20). Junior Josephine Moultrie knocked five seconds off the two year old UNM indoor mile record with a 4:42.30 finish, good enough for 16^th place in the open womens mile. Moultrie re-wrote school indoor records in the 600m (1:33.21) and 800m (2:09.27) just two weeks ago at the UNM Lobo Invite here in Albuquerque. The 800m record had stood for over 30 years (Sue Vigil, 1979).

My favorite championship race, the US Cross Country Nationals was run Saturday out in St. Louis, MO. Santa Fe’s Ben Fletcher made a go of it, rolling to a 28^th place finish in the open men’s 12K, 39min9sec, following a 47^th place finish in last year’s race. WINGS of America runners dominated team scoring in the junior races. 

In winter news, last weekend was the legendary Crested Butte Alley Loop Ski Races. Los Alamos' Tarik Saleh and a contingent of the Southwest Nordic team were there and he has posted some photos and a sweet report.