Women’s basketball
The New Mexico women’s basketball team will have a step up in competition next season.
Several big names including Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, Stanford, Miami and Texas Tech fill the Lobos’ nonconference schedule.
Head coach Yvonne Sanchez said the schedule promises to be tough, but the team needed to raise its level of competition.
“It was important to our program to raise our RPI and help raise the RPI of the conference,” Sanchez said. “We walked the fine line between a challenging schedule and a grueling one. Our nonconference schedule will give us some great opponents and challenge our team while continuing some of our program’s tremendous rivalries. It also brings some high-caliber programs to The Pit, which is exciting for our great fan base.”
The Lobos went from 11-20 overall in the 2011-2012 season to 17-14 last season, a six-game improvement. However, UNM was demolished by top-ranked opponents: Then-No.8 Georgia defeated UNM 72-42 at The Pit, and then-No. 23 Colorado torched the Lobos 84-39 in Boulder, Col.
UNM’s nonconference schedule has dwindled because the Mountain West Conference expanded to 11 teams in women’s basketball. The 2013-14 MWC schedule has yet to be released, but teams will play 18 regular-season conference games.
The Lobos will play NMSU only once this season as opposed to the usual home-and-home contests. Aggies head coach Mark Trakh decided against continuing to play the annual two-game series against both UNM and UTEP.
Baseball
A record-breaking 16 New Mexico baseball players were announced to have joined the Academic All-Conference Team on Thursday.
In order to be eligible, student athletes must have completed one academic term at the member’s institution while maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better, and be a starter or a significant contributor to the team.
The UNM baseball players that were honored were Alex Allbritton, Kevin Baumgartner, Drew Bridges, Luke Campbell, A.J. Carman, Anthony Consiglio, Jonathan Cuellar, Taylor Duree, Alex Estrella, Mitch Garver, Sam Haggerty, Chase Harris, Jared Holley, Logan Lippert, Josh Melendez and Sam Wolff.
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Altogether, the Lobos had 111 student athletes credited in the spring and finished the academic year with 163 honorees, leading the MWC in both categories.
Football
New Mexico junior kick returner Chase Clayton was awarded preseason All-American honors by the Beyond Sports network, according to a release from UNM issued Thursday.
Clayton averaged 30.4 yards per kick return last season, finishing fifth nationally and leading the Mountain West Conference in that category.
Four UNM players, including Clayton, received preseason All-Mountain West first team recognition from Athlon Sports on Wednesday. Senior running back Kasey Carrier, junior offensive guard LaMar Bratton and senior punter Ben Skaer also made the first team. Senior linebacker Dallas Bollema was an Athlon Sports third-team All Mountain West preseason selection.
Men’s golf
For the first time in 17 years, two UNM golfers received All-American honors.
Earlier this month, the Golf Coaches Association of America placed senior James Erkenbeck on its PING All-American first team. The association on Thursday announced sophomore Gavin Green was a third-team selection.
Erkenbeck and Green are UNM’s first All-American duo since Rob McMillan and Mike Sauer were second-team selections in 1996.
Track and Field
Three former UNM athletes and one Lobo senior-to-be competed in various national competitions over the weekend.
Jarrin Solomon, a 2009 UNM graduate and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, placed 10th in the 400 meters while competing at the Trinidad and Tobago championships, the NAAA Sagicor/NGC National Open Championships, in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. He crossed the finish line in 45.34 seconds.
Solomon was scheduled to compete in the 4×400 relay Sunday, but those results were not immediately available.
At the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, 2011 graduate Alesha Walker had an eighth-place long jump finish with a 20-feet, 10 1/2-inch leap, and 2013 graduate Floyd Ross took 10th in the triple jump with a 53-0 3/4 mark. At the Canadian Track & Field Championships in Moncton, New Brunswick, UNM senior-to-be Django Lovett cleared 6-9 3/4 and finished fourth.
