Host Lobos sweep top seven spots, led by Mazza-Downie, to achieve first perfect score in program history at conference final and only third all-time at Mountain West meet; DeCaro wins for Boise State, but Air Force secures back-to-back titles

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – If anyone thought the University of New Mexico women’s cross country team would be satisfied by reaching the mountaintop, the Lobos squashed those thoughts rather quickly Friday morning.

New Mexico absolutely dominated an already strong conference lineup, sweeping the first seven spots to produce a perfect 15-point effort and extend the nation’s longest conference championship winning streak, as the Lobos secured their 14th consecutive Mountain West title at the University of New Mexico North Golf Course.

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The win marked just the second time during this run that the Lobos were able to win at home, the last time being in 2017. Sophomore Amelia Mazza-Downie led the way with an individual win over the 6-kilometer layout in 19 minutes, 37.2 seconds.

On the men’s side, Air Force won its second consecutive conference title and fourth overall with a strong second half in the 8-kilometer race, and Boise State’s Dario DeCaro surged late for a breakthrough individual win in 23:26.8.

New Mexico’s women had ascended to the nation’s No. 1 ranking two weeks ago after a convincing victory Oct. 15 over No. 2 North Carolina State and No. 3 Brigham Young at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Wisconsin. Friday doubled down on that performance.

“I knew we were going to do well,” Mazza-Downie said, “but I didn’t know we were going to do that well.”

Mazza-Downie took control late in the race after the Lobos successfully employed a strategy of staying together until the final kilometer. She became the seventh different individual Mountain West champion for the Lobos, who have won eight overall titles in the past 12 years.

She kicked to the finish about a half-second ahead of runner-up and freshman Emma Heckel (19:37.9). Heckel was followed by a Lobos’ parade, including sophomore Gracelyn Larkin (third, 19:41.2), senior and Harvard transfer Abbe Goldstein (fourth, 19:44.2), freshmen Ali Upshaw (fifth, 19:46.0) and Samree Dishon (sixth, 19:51.8), as well as senior and Edinboro transfer Stefanie Parsons (seventh, 19:55.8).

Colorado State senior Lily Tomasula-Martin was the top non-New Mexico finisher in eighth in 19:57.3.

“They did really well,” New Mexico coach Joe Franklin said, “and what’s beautiful about this team is they’re incredibly interchangeable. Our No. 1 today was eighth at Wisconsin on our team, and our No. 5 today wasn’t even in the ‘A’ race. She was third in the Open race at Wisconsin. So it shows the depth of how they are.”

Franklin said the strategy of staying together until breaking away at 4,000 meters for the stretch run was exactly what he wanted.

“That’s kind of what we do,” he said, “is try to be as grouped as possible before we start pressing. And it worked again today.”

To win a conference meet with 15 points was a special achievement, particularly in a conference where both second-place Utah State (73 points) and third-place Colorado State (75) are ranked in the top 30 nationally. The conference reported that it was just the third perfect score in Mountain West history and first since 2002, including the first for New Mexico, whose best performance before Friday was a 20-point effort at the 2010 Mountain West final.

“The only time we started thinking about it (scoring 15 points) was today after the first lap (of the race),” Franklin said. “And then (assistant coach Laura Bowerman) and I said, ‘This could happen.’ And so at 4,000 meters, that’s when we started talking to them, ‘Hey, let’s try to do something that’s never been done.’ We were actually saying that to them during the race, after 4,000 meters. That was not the intention going in.”

Mazza-Downie said the Lobos got the message.

“It was good because we were all working together and it was really comforting having all the girls there,” she said. “And when we got to about halfway, I was feeling really comfortable and I turned to the girls, and I was like, ‘Are we halfway?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re halfway,’ so we started pushing a bit.

“And when we had a (kilometer) to go, and I was feeling really comfortable again, I said, ‘Is this a K to go? And so then we just took off from there.”

The men’s race shaped up to have much more drama than the women. But it was won in similar fashion when considering it took a strong second-half showing from Air Force for the Falcons to secure their second consecutive conference title.

Propelled by a second consecutive Mountain West runner-up run by junior Sam Gilman (23:31.1), Air Force tallied 27 points. Senior teammate Ryan Ioanidis was third in 23:35.1, while Will Kitzhaber (sixth, 23:38.4), junior Scott Maison (seventh, 23:39.5), Luke Combs (ninth, 23:45.4) and sophomore Sean Maison (10th, 23:49.6) gave the Falcons six of the conference’s top 10 runners.

Yet at 5.3 kilometers, Boise State had taken a projected 39-46 lead, before the Falcons surged and the Broncos settled for second. Utah State was third with 79 points, and Colorado State was fourth with 80.

“We didn’t really know how this race was going to play out,” Gilman said. “We knew that CSU could take it out hard, and Boise could take it out hard, so our plan was to be really patient. And the last 2 or 3 (kilometers), we started to work, and that’s what happened. It played out perfectly.”

DeCaro, however, didn’t settle for anything and held his positioning in a front pack that stayed together for more than two-thirds of the race. DeCaro moved into the lead and held off the Air Force contingent, as well as Colorado State junior Tanner Norman (fourth, 23:36.0) and New Mexico sophomore Abdirizak Ibrahim (fifth, 23:37.3) for the win.

“We knew it was going to be a tactical race,” DeCaro said. “We tried to run smart as a group. We tried to stay in front but not to lead; stay there. And at 1k to go, someone was going to make the move, so I tried to make it myself.”

And it paid off.

“I knew that it was going to be a great race, but this is how you grow up,” said DeCaro, who is from Italy. “This is how you improve, by just running with people, like that today. I am really glad to be here.”

DeCaro’s teammate, Jack Letich, finished eighth in 23:42.2 to help the Broncos to their second-place finish.

“Three years ago, the guys were fourth,” DeCaro said. “Last year, they were third, and now we are second. We are growing up all together, that’s the most important thing.”