Athletes from the University of New Mexico took top honors in the Mountain West yesterday, with the announcement of multiple awards including Male Athlete and Female Athlete of the Year for Habtom Samuel and Pamela Kosgei, respectively, and Scholar-Athlete of the Year for Akili Carris. Samuel and Kosgei’s wins mark the first time in Mountain West history that both Athletes of the Year came from the same school.
Samuel, a junior, dominated the track this year with four national titles: cross country, indoor 5,000-meter, outdoor 5,000-meter and outdoor 10,000-meter during the 2025-2026 season, which, along with his outdoor 10,000-meter title in 2024, ties former gymnast Chad Fox for the most national titles in UNM history, according to GoLobos.
Kosgei is now a back-to-back winner of the Female Athlete of the Year Award, the third only in conference history. The sophomore took conference titles in the outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase and cross country 6k, and was runner-up and third place for the national 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter titles, respectively.
Carris, who graduated with the Class of 2026, started at third base for the men’s baseball team for three seasons and is the fifth male athlete from UNM to win the conference scholar-athlete award, the most in Mountain West history. He hit over .300 in his last three seasons at UNM in 120 games, leading the team to its first ever postseason win in May and is now a graduate student at the James & Gail Ellis School of Business Leadership.
The University of New Mexico also led the Mountain West in all-academic honorees for the second year in a row with 245. The baseball, men’s golf and women’s tennis teams all led their sports in the conference and the softball team took the runner-up spot.
Elliott Wood is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at editorinchief@dailylobo.com or @DailyLobo on X
