BREAKING: Top New Mexico Women Enter Transfer Portal

The Stride Report has learned that numerous women from the University of New Mexico have entered the transfer portal. Those women are Amelia Mazza-Downie, Elise Thorner, Gracelyn Larkin, Maisie Grice and Aliandrea Upshaw.

TSR can also confirm that there are additional New Mexico women entered in the transfer portal, although specifications are not ready to be disclosed at this time.

The sudden and mass migration of the Lobo women to the transfer portal stems from Joe Franklin, the former head coach of New Mexico, accepting the Director of Track & Field and Cross Country role at Louisville earlier this month.

Amelia Mazza-Downie, Gracelyn Larkin and Elise Thorner are all entered as graduate transfers. They are expected to have one full year of eligibility remaining between all three seasons of competition.

Maisie Grice, meanwhile, will also be a graduate transfer. However, she is expected to have two seasons of cross country eligibility, two seasons of indoor track eligibility and one season of outdoor track eligibility remaining.

As for Aliandrea Upshaw, she will be a standard transfer who is expected to have two full years of eligibility across all three seasons of competition.

Mazza-Downie is a juggernaut long distance talent, going from "good" to "great" over the last year. Last fall, she was an All-American on the grass by finishing 22nd at the cross country national meet. She also placed 10th at the Joe Piane Invite, 12th at Nuttycombe and won the individual Mountain West cross country title.

The Aussie distance standout would later run 15:18 for 5000 meters on the indoor oval and 32:07 for 10,000 meters during the spring months, eventually earning All-American honors in the latter event earlier this month.

Mazza-Downie also finished as an All-American in the 5k at the 2022 indoor national meet.
 

Thorner, meanwhile, has proven to be a top-tier talent over the barriers and water pits. The British distance runner has run as fast as 9:32 in the steeplechase. She finished 5th overall in that event at the 2022 outdoor national meet and later placed 4th in the same discipline at this year's NCAA Outdoor Championships.

On the grass, Thorner was a 40th place All-American at the 2022 cross country national meet. That honor came after a season where she finished 20th at the Joe Piane Invite, 25th at the Nuttycombe Invite and 6th at the Mountain West XC Championships.

We then come to Gracelyn Larkin, an often underappreciated distance talent despite her excellent resume. In addition to her 10k PR of 32:32 from this past spring, Larkin has also run as fast as 15:29 over 5000 meters.

The Canadian distance standout finished 7th place (to earn All-American honors) over 5000 meters at both the 2023 indoor national meet and 2022 outdoor national meet. She also finished 8th over 5000 meters at the 2022 indoor national meet.

Larkin is also a three-time All-American on the grass, placing 25th (winter of 2021), 21st (fall of 2021) and 26th (fall of 2022) in her last three showings on that stage. She also finished 9th place at both the Joe Piane Invitational and the Nuttycombe Invitational last fall.

And then there is Maisie Grice, a newcomer to Albuquerque, New Mexico who showed nationally competitive promise in the steeplechase this past spring. The British distance talent ran 9:48 over the barriers earlier this year and has also run 4:17.99 for 1500 meters before. She raced twice this past fall, finishing 26th place in the "B" race at the Nuttycombe Invite.

Upshaw, meanwhile, has run 15:54 (5k) and 33:18 (10k) on the oval. She has not raced in 2023, but she did finish 12th at the 2022 Mountain West XC Championships (as well as 5th at that meet in the fall of 2021) and 33rd at the Joe Piane Invite last fall. She has made two national meet appearances on the grass.

Samree Dishon, a fellow All-American Lobo from the fall of 2022, had already entered the transfer portal prior to the departure of Coach Joe Franklin. She will now attend Colorado where she will team up with fellow transfers Natalie Cook and Marlee Starliper.

With such an overwhelming amount of talent set to leave New Mexico this summer, in addition to other unnamed athletes, the current era of collegiate distance dominance from the Lobo women is seemingly nearing it's conclusion.

Or at the very least, it's drawing closer to an extended pause and rebuild.

This, in turn, could open the door for cross country teams such as Colorado State, Utah State, Boise State and even Air Force to establish a greater stronghold at the top of the Mountain West Conference.

However, maybe more importantly, this sudden exodus of All-American stars allows the door to stay open for teams like NC State, Oklahoma State and Colorado as they attempt to position themselves for yet another national title run in the fall of 2023.

In fact, it's highly likely that at least one of those programs will pursue that contingent of Lobo women (assuming scholarships are available) over the coming weeks.

It should also be noted that the University of Florida will be in their first offseason with Will Palmer as their distance coach.

The Gators recently added an All-American standout in Flomena Asekol to pair with superstar low-stick, Parker Valby. And as of right now, unsubstantiated speculation suggests that Florida may continue to make an effort to add more firepower to a distance program that is, very quietly, becoming increasingly more dangerous.

It is unclear if any of the current New Mexico women will pursue (or be able to pursue) an opportunity to run for their former coach, Joe Franklin, at the University of Louisville.