Men’s Basketball
Head Coach Craig Neal completed the recruitment process for the 2014 class with the addition of Elijah Brown, a transfer from Butler, the team announced last Tuesday.
Brown, a 6-foot-4 guard from Los Angeles, saw action in 30 games and averaged 6.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists. He shot a team-high 85.4 percent from the free throw line last season. His best game came against Villanova, where he scored 19 points.
He will redshirt this coming season and will be eligible to play for the 2015-16 season, as per NCAA transfer rules.
Brown’s father, Mike Brown, has head coaching experience in the NBA, and Neal said in a statement that he and the elder Brown have known each other through their professional experiences.
Neal said he is looking forward to having Elijah Brown become a Lobo, adding he’s known Brown since Brown was in the seventh grade.
“Elijah is a good shooter, which complements his all-around guard play,” Neal said. “He will help continue our program’s excellent tradition of guards.”
Elijah Brown joins transfers Tim Jacobs, Jordan Goodman and J.J. N’Ganga, along with incoming freshmen Xavier Adams, Joe Furstinger and Tohi Smith-Milner as the Lobos’ newcomers.
Track and Field
For the first time in three years, the Lobos will send eight athletes to the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Peter Callahan, Charlotte Arter, Sammy Silva, Suzi Boast, Luke Caldwell, Adam Bitchell, Richard Yord and Charles Lewis all earned spots in the championship final round after hitting qualifying marks at last weekend’s West Preliminary competition in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Having eight qualifiers ties the second-highest number in UNM program history. The Lobos sent 11 to the NCAA finals in 2009 and sent no fewer than six in 2012 and 2013.
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“There’s always some really, really good things that happen; there’s always some things that just didn’t quite go your way,” New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin said after the final day in Fayetteville. “But overall, it was a great day.”
Callahan earned his automatic qualification bid in Saturday’s men’s 1,500-meter run, taking second in the preliminaries with a personal-best time of 3 minutes, 40.40 seconds.
Arter also received an automatic bid in the women’s 1,500 after taking sixth in 4:19.67. Silva and Boast clocked 4:19.87 and 4:20.06, respectively, in the same event to qualify for the championships.
Caldwell will compete in his sixth-straight NCAA championships spanning the cross country, indoor track and outdoor track seasons. On Thursday he ran the 10,000 meters in 29:35.83 to qualify. Bitchell joins Caldwell in the 10,000 after he recorded a 29:40.35 time. They became the first UNM duo in five years to advance in that event.
York’s spot came in the javelin with a personal-best throw of 215 feet, 4 inches. Only five other UNM athletes have qualified for the finals in the javelin.
Lewis ran the 400-meter hurdles in 50.55, also personal-best mark. His bid is the third by a UNM male athlete in that event and the first since 1979.
~ Compiled by J.R. Oppenheim
