by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
Chelsea Sondrup - The middle blocker for the UNM volleyball team has been part of a team that's already had its best season under four-year head coach Kelley McKee - and there's still at least 12 games left.
Sondrup's penchant for sending volleyballs back to opposing teams with return-to-sender stamps has helped her set the career record for blocks this season. She held the record for block assists before the season even started.
And it's about time Sondrup's hard work started to pay off.
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The Lobos have spent the past three seasons languishing in the cellar of the Mountain West Conference.
Sondrup's got 12 games to show the rest of the MWC the Lobos aren't chilling in that cellar any longer.
Kristine Sweat - Her game-winning goal against No. 6-ranked Brigham Young University on Thursday and goal against the Utah Utes on Saturday helped snag her Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors.
With two goals last week, Sweat boosted her team-leading total to five on the season and has had a more offensively productive year than her first two years combined.
If Sweat keeps up her goal-scoring extravaganza, the Lobos could be prancing around the MWC come tournament time.
Mike Graczyk - Who said filling goalkeeper Andrew Weber's shoes would be too much of a task for Graczyk?
The goalkeeper for the men's soccer team took over for Weber - the holder of every goalkeeping record in the program's history - and has quietly led the Lobos to a 9-0-1 start and their first unanimous No. 1 ranking ever with seven shutouts in 10 games.
Quietly - until now. Graczyk snatched Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week honors this week after holding conference opponents Denver University and the Air Force Academy scoreless.
Graczyk has conceded five goals in 10 games and his seven shutouts on the season rank him fourth in program history for shutouts in a season.
Looks like Graczyk's got a pair of his own shoes, and they fit just fine.
Cameron Clarke - Clarke, a fifth-year senior, was going to be the No. 2 runner this year behind sophomore Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott.
My, how things change in a summer.
Kiptoo-Biwott bailed for the University of Oregon before the season, All-American Matt Gonzales jumped ship to the professional ranks, and Clarke found himself in the spotlight.
It seems he's going to be staying there.
Clarke has been the top runner for UNM in every meet this season except for the New Mexico State University Kachina Classic, but that's because he didn't even run in it.
The next meet for Clarke is the Mountain West Conference Championships - a meet Gonzales and Kiptoo-Biwott finished first and second in last year.
Clarke's got his work cut out for him.
