UNM Announces 2011-12 Diehm/Self Award Winners

The win­ner of the L.F. “Tow” Diehm Inspi­ra­tional Award for 2011-12 is Chris Acosta (men’s ski­ing), while Jael Clark (the for­mer Jael Fan­ning, women’s soc­cer) is the recip­i­ent of the Leslie Self Inspi­ra­tional Award.

Started in 1997–98, this is the 15th year the awards have been pre­sented to a UNM male and female student-athlete based on lead­er­ship, char­ac­ter, deter­mi­na­tion and com­mit­ment to team.

This year’s recip­i­ents will be rec­og­nized at an upcom­ing men’s bas­ket­ball game.

A native of Ash­land, Wis., Chris Acosta over­came per­sonal tragedy to become a three-time All-American down­hill skier for the Lobos.

In the sum­mer of 2010, Acosta and his clos­est friend, Spencer Nel­son, a mem­ber of the Uni­ver­sity of Col­orado Alpine ski team, were hik­ing near Aspen, Colo. Nel­son was struck by a falling rock and fell to his death as Acosta and other friends looked on.

A for­mer walk-on, Acosta is now a senior at UNM and cap­tain of the men’s Alpine team. He has earned All-America hon­ors each of the past three sea­sons in the giant slalom and slalom, includ­ing a third-place fin­ish at the 2012 NCAA Championships.

Jael Clark (Albu­querque / La Cueva HS), the for­mer Jael Fan­ning, logged phe­nom­e­nal achieve­ments — on and off the soc­cer pitch — dur­ing her time at UNM.

Clark was a four-year let­ter­win­ner (2008–11) who played in 80 career matches for head coach Kit Vela, lead­ing the Lobos to Moun­tain West cham­pi­onships in 2010 and 2011, and their first appear­ances in the NCAA Col­lege Cup.

Clark was a four-time recip­i­ent of the Moun­tain West aca­d­e­mic all-conference award and a three-time MW Scholar-Athlete award win­ner. She grad­u­ated from UNM in May with a degree in Nutri­tion and a sparkling 4.08 cumu­la­tive grade-point-average.

Clark logged more than 300 hours of com­mu­nity ser­vice while at UNM, includ­ing Toys for Tots, UNICEF, Spe­cial Olympics, Race for the Cure for breast can­cer, col­lect­ing shoes for vic­tims of the Haiti earth­quake and pro­vid­ing phys­i­cal ther­apy at sev­eral hos­pi­tals and clin­ics locally.

Clark was awarded an NCAA post­grad­u­ate schol­ar­ship ear­lier this year. She is cur­rently in grad­u­ate school at UNM, study­ing Phys­i­cal Ther­apy. She mar­ried for­mer UNM hur­dler Chad Clark in July.

About Tow Diehm
L.F. “Tow” Diehm served the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico for 40 years, most of that time spent as the head ath­let­ics trainer. He was also an ath­let­ics admin­is­tra­tor and a lob­by­ist for the depart­ment to the New Mex­ico state leg­is­la­ture. Tow passed away on May 1, 1998.

About Leslie Self
Leslie Self was the wife of Randy Self, who is the for­mer Pres­i­dent of the Lobo Club. Leslie also passed away in 1998 after a long bat­tle with cancer.

Pre­vi­ous Award Win­ners
Tow Diehm Award
1997–98 Pepe Caballero — ten­nis
1998–99 Mar­cos White — bas­ket­ball
1999–00 Daniel Reyes — foot­ball
2000-01 Brian Smith — bas­ket­ball
2001-02 Jar­rod Bax­ter — foot­ball
2002-03 Dusty Young — base­ball
2003-04 Divan Coet­zee — ten­nis
2004-05 Nick Spee­gle — foot­ball
2005-06 Chris Carl­son — base­ball; Lars Los­eth — skiing/soccer
2006-07 Robb Bier­baum — golf
2007-08 Jeremy John­son — cross country/track and field; John Sul­li­van — foot­ball
2008-09 Johnny Parkes — ten­nis
2009-10 Simon Ejde­myr — soc­cer; Roman Mar­tinez — bas­ket­ball
2010-11 Tor-Hakon Helle­bostad – ski­ing
2011-12 Chris Acosta — skiing

Leslie Self Award
1997–98 Tamika Stukes — bas­ket­ball
1998–99 Aimee Hites — ten­nis
1999–00 Nikki Heck­roth — bas­ket­ball
2000-01 Quinn Michie — swim­ming
2001-02 Kristi Larsen — golf
2002-03 Jen­nifer Delich — ski­ing
2003-04 Amanda Barnes — track and field; Cassie Chavez — soft­ball; Nicole Overeem — swim­ming
2004-05 Kris­ten Win­ters — soc­cer
2005-06 Maja Kovacek — ten­nis
2006-07 Ter­ryn Grana­dos — soc­cer; Jen Hale — swim­ming
2007-08 Katie Coro­n­ado — track and field; Tori Clar­ridge — swim­ming
2008-09 Sarah Kwasi­groch — vol­ley­ball
2009-10 Polina Ermoshina — ski­ing; Nanette Wit­ten­berg — swim­ming
2010-11 Kelly Williamson – vol­ley­ball
2011-12 Jael Clark — soccer