If you’ve been anxiously waiting for the final race in the NCAA cross-country season, then you’re in luck! This season has been nothing short of thrilling, with generational performances and historic races. On the other hand, the best of the best looked forward to setting things straight in the pièce de résistance—the Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course. However, all eyes would be on one promising runner, New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel. 

The best collegiate distance runners stepped onto the track to prove their mettle and fight for the ultimate title of the Champion. Over six-and-a-half hours of racing, nine different regionals from Tallahassee to Pullman set out to battle it out. One of them happened to be New Mexico’s star. Given that the NCAA track and field champion has already done the impossible before, many expected the same results this time. And it’s safe to say that he definitely didn’t disappoint. 

Nothing could stop Habtom Samuel from finishing his race

The 20-year-old has a stellar record this season. In fact, he shattered the course record in Madison, defeating the defending champion Graham Blanks. This happened to be his first cross-country loss in 700 days. Habtom Samuel was 2-1 this fall, considering he snagged impressive wins at the Pre-Nationals and the Mountain West Championships. But if that wasn’t impressive enough, this might change your mind. The long-distance runner covered the NCAA National XC Championship 10km course in 28:38, crossing the finish line with a bleeding toe in a second-place finish!

The runner looked forward to redeeming himself from last year’s loss at the event. However, things didn’t exactly turn out that way. He started out with both running spikes and was with the leaders for the first 7,500 m of the 10,000 m course. But this is where things started to unwind. The 20-year-old tripped and lost his left spike. It came off during the fall. Now he only had two clear choices. The runner could go back to retrieve his shoe and lose his pace, or keep going.

Undeterred, Habtob Samuel decided to pick the latter. With 2,500 m still left to go, he continued to keep his pace and closely followed the leader. He was only 1.7 seconds behind his fiercest rival, Graham Blanks, who bagged his second win with 28:37.2 on the clock. What’s unbelievable is that the course was frozen with snow 36 hours before the event. It’s not an easy feat to run without a shoe in such insane circumstances, and the 20-year-old ensured everyone knew by pointing at his feet as he crossed the finish line. How did he change the course for New Mexico?

The 20-year-old won the first NCAA championship for New Mexico

It was just his first year at New Mexico, and the runner accomplished everything he could in the NCAA Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field. What happened, you ask? Well, for starters, he won an individual NCAA title. He had been working towards the title all year. In fact, he had to settle for a second-place finish at the 2023 NCAA XC Championships.

Before that, Habtom Samuel had placed fourth in the 5,000m and seventh in the 3,000m at the 2024 Indoor Championships. He had also earned the First Team All-American honors three times but always came up short of an individual crown by less than six seconds in each. Yet none of that mattered, because he finally was the 2024 NCAA 10,000m National Champion.

However, this didn’t come without any hurdles. The heavy favorite was ranked No. 2 in the NCAA due to his personal best. Yet, when it came to that fateful night of the men’s 10,000m final at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, even though a fall pushed him to fifth place, he clawed his way to the top down the stretch with a 58.16-second split over the final 400m.

Crossing the line at 28:07.82, Habtom Samuel became the first UNM athlete to win an NCAA outdoor individual title since Weini Kelati won the women’s 100,000m in 2019 and the first man to do it for the Lobos since Josh Kerr in 2017. The 20-year-old is the eighth man in program history to win an NCAA Individual Championship—both he and Kerr are the only ones to win in the 21st century. While he had to settle for another second-place finish yet again, he’s definitely proved his mettle on the track. Did you watch his incredible race?