Sports Briefs

Track and Field

Three UNM athletes will compete in their home countries’ track and field championships this week.

Triple jumper Floyd Ross and long jumper Alesha Walker, both recent UNM graduates, will travel to Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa, and participate in the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Ross is scheduled to compete Thursday, while Walker’s event is Saturday.

Senior-to-be Django Lovett, meanwhile, will battle in the high jump at the Canadian Track & Field Championships Saturday in Moncton, New Brunswick.

All three athletes look to qualify for the International Association of Athletics Federation World Championships. To do so, they must capture a top-three finish and reach an “A Standard” qualification mark — 56 feet, 5 1/4 inches in the men’s triple jump; 22-1 3/4 in the women’s long jump; and 7-7 in the men’s high jump.

In other UNM track news, the Mountain West Conference on Thursday named UNM distance runner Luke Caldwell its Student Athlete of the year for outdoor track and field. 

Football

New Mexico has added Tulsa to its schedule for 2015 and 2017 after the two schools agreed to a home-and-home series, UNM’s athletic department announced Friday.

The Lobos will host the first game of the series Sept. 12, 2015 and will travel to H.A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa, Okla., on Sept. 23, 2017. The Golden Hurricanes hold a 4-2 all-time series lead over UNM: the two last met at University Stadium in 2009, at which Tulsa won the game 44-10.

“Our football program has tremendous respect for Tulsa,” UNM coach Bob Davie said in a statement. “The fact that the Golden Hurricane have gone to a bowl game for three straight years shows the success they’ve had. Giving the proximity between the schools, the series should generate a great deal of fan interest.”

In this upcoming season, UNM’s Sept. 7 road game against Texas-El Paso will be televised on Fox College Sports.