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Category Archives: Athletics

Lobo Junior Golf Camps Set for Early-June

May 14, 2012 | By Steve Carr
junior_putting

The UNM Cham­pi­onship Golf Course will host two ses­sions of the 2012 Lobo Junior Golf Camp for boys and girls ages 7–18. The first ses­sion will be held June 4–7, while the sec­ond is set for June 11–14. The cost for the camp is $150, which includes instruc­tion, camp shirt, refresh­ments and prizes. Camp runs daily at 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The camps will be taught by UNM men’s golf coaches Glen Mil­li­can and Brian Kor­tan, and women’s coaches Jill Tru­jillo and Becky Dover. As per NCAA rules, stu­dents who have attended col­lege are not eli­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate in the camp. Part of the instruc­tion will include edu­ca­tional talks cov­er­ing rules, his­tory of the game, eti­quette, safety, equip­ment, col­lege golf schol­ar­ships, golf course man­age­ment, sports psy­chol­ogy, and video and track­man analysis.

For more infor­ma­tion. vol­un­teer and or to reg­is­ter, visit: Lobo Junior Golf Camp, call (505) 604‑4786, (805) 704‑4776 or email, unmgolf@yahoo.com.

To view a camp video visit: Lobo Junior Golf Camp Video.

Posted in Athletics, Campus Community, Events | |

Koson Appointed to New Mexico Lottery Authority Board

February 9, 2012 | By Steve Carr

Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Asso­ciate Ath­letic Direc­tor and Direc­tor of Tick­et­ing Ser­vices Mark Koson was one of eight indi­vid­u­als recently appointed by Gov. Susana Mar­tinez to var­i­ous state boards and com­mis­sions. Koson was appointed to the New Mex­ico Lot­tery Author­ity Board.

Koson, who has been at UNM for 19 years, has also worked in tick­et­ing and event ser­vices for the Pitts­burgh Cul­tural Trust, the Uni­ver­sity of Hous­ton, and the Den­ver Nuggets.

Koson earned his degree in Sports & Enter­tain­ment Admin­is­tra­tion from Durham College.

Posted in Athletics, Campus Community, University News | |

Lobos Get 102 on Spring MWC All-Academic Squad; 126 Named Scholar-Athletes

June 30, 2011 | By Steve Carr
Go-Lobos-Logo

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico had 102 student-athletes named to the Moun­tain West Conference’s All-Academic squad, the third con­sec­u­tive spring that the Lobos picked up at least 100 hon­ors. The Lobos were led by a Moun­tain West record 12 selec­tions from women’s bas­ket­ball, and a league record-tying seven from men’s tennis.

The haul of 102 was part of the Moun­tain West’s 782 student-athletes that earned All-Academic hon­ors. To be eli­gi­ble for selec­tion, student-athletes must have com­pleted at least one aca­d­e­mic term at the mem­ber insti­tu­tion while main­tain­ing a cumu­la­tive grade point aver­age of 3.0 or bet­ter, and be a starter or sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor on their ath­letic team.

The 102 hon­ors for the Lobos marked the third straight year that UNM cracked the cen­tury mark, and fifth time in the last six years. The 102 was the second-highest num­ber in the league, behind BYU’s 157. Only the Lobos and the Cougars have ever recorded 100 or more hon­orees in a season.

The 102 gave the Lobos 162 for the year, as UNM had a school record 60 hon­orees in the fall. The 162 was two away from UNM’s single-year record of 164 set in 2008-09. The Lobos had 12 play­ers earn All-Academic hon­ors in women’s bas­ket­ball under for­mer coach Don Flana­gan. The pre­vi­ous record for women’s bas­ket­ball was 11, set in 2002-03 by Wyoming. Under Alan Dils, men’s ten­nis tied a league record with seven hon­orees. It was the sixth time that a men’s ten­nis squad had seven hon­ored, and the Lobos were one of three this year alone.

Other solid gains were made by men’s bas­ket­ball, who had their high­est total since 2005-06, swim­ming and div­ing, who had 19, just one off their record of 20 set last year, and women’s ten­nis, who fin­ished one off their pre­vi­ous record of eight.

Scholar-Athletes…
Addi­tion­ally, The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico had 126 student-athletes named Moun­tain West Scholar-Athletes, includ­ing 21 that have main­tained a 4.0 grade point aver­age or higher. The 126 is a part of a league-wide 581 student-athletes that were hon­ored across the Moun­tain West.

This year’s mark shat­tered the pre­vi­ous league record of 549 hon­orees, set in 2008-09.

The MW Scholar-Athlete Award is one of the high­est aca­d­e­mic hon­ors bestowed by the con­fer­ence. To be eli­gi­ble for selec­tion, student-athletes must have com­pleted at least two aca­d­e­mic terms at the mem­ber insti­tu­tion, while main­tain­ing a cumu­la­tive grade point aver­age of 3.5 or bet­ter, and have par­tic­i­pated in var­sity com­pe­ti­tion in an NCAA-sponsored sport.

The Lobos were rep­re­sented by nearly every sport spon­sored by the New Mex­ico ath­let­ics depart­ment, includ­ing 48 Lobos off the track and cross coun­try pro­grams, headed by Joe Franklin. Also scor­ing well were women’s soc­cer with 12 scholar-athletes, swim­ming and div­ing with 11, ski­ing with 10, and men’s golf with seven.

Four Cap­i­tal One/CoSIDA Aca­d­e­mic All-Americans led the way for the Lobos, includ­ing Tor-Hakon Helle­bostad of ski­ing and Travis Ross of men’s golf, who both were First Team Aca­d­e­mic All-Americans. Also on the squad were Third Team Aca­d­e­mic All-Americans Amanda Best of women’s bas­ket­ball and Kelly Williamson of vol­ley­ball. Swim­ming and div­ing and women’s bas­ket­ball each had three student-athletes record a 4.0 GPA or better.

4.0 or bet­ter Lobos:
Amanda Best, women’s bas­ket­ball
Car­o­line Durbin, women’s bas­ket­ball
Lau­ren Tay­lor, women’s bas­ket­ball
Lacey Oed­ing, cross coun­try & track
Ash­lee Smal­ley, cross coun­try & track
Travis Ross, men’s golf
Sofia Hoglund, ski­ing
Tor-Hakon Helle­bostad, ski­ing
Terese Ander­s­son, ski­ing
Jael Fan­ning, women’s soc­cer
Made­line Greene, soft­ball
Melissa Bol­lig, swim­ming
Maria Dud­ley, swim­ming
Nan Wit­ten­berg, swim­ming
Michaela Bezdick­ova, women’s ten­nis
Kristin Eggle­ston, women’s ten­nis
Chad Clark, track
Thomas Tru­jillo, track
Kelly Williamson, volleyball

Posted in Athletics, Featured, University News | |

UNM Volleyball Team to Host Several Camps

June 7, 2011 | By Steve Carr

The UNM Vol­ley­ball team is host­ing sev­eral sum­mer camps for chil­dren ages K-12. From June 20–24, Lit­tle Lobos, ages K-5, can get a taste of the sport. An indi­vid­ual skills camp for play­ers in grades 5–8 will also be held dur­ing the same timeframe.

In July, the Set­ter and Libero camp will be held July 11–13. It’s open to all play­ers in grades 7–12. An Advanced Camp, open to the same age group, will be held July 14–17. A team camp, open to all high school teams, is set for July 22–24.

For a camp brochure visit, UNM Vol­ley­ball Sum­mer Camps. For more infor­ma­tion call Jordie Hat­field at (505) 277‑0102.

Posted in Athletics, Events | |

MWC Championship Baseball T-Shirts Available at UNM Bookstore

June 1, 2011 | By Steve Carr
Lobo MWC Shirt

You can help the UNM Base­ball team cel­e­brate its recent Moun­tain West Con­fer­ence Tour­na­ment cham­pi­onship with an MWC cham­pi­onship base­ball T-shirt for only $16.95 at the UNM Book­store. The snazzy T-shirt is avail­able in red with the UNM shield logo. All sizes are avail­able, but quan­ti­ties are limited.

UNM Book­store hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday-Friday, June 1–3 and Monday-Wednesday, June 6–9, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sat­ur­day, June 4.

For more infor­ma­tion or to pur­chase online visit: MWC Cham­pi­onship T-shirts or at the Lobo Den at The Pit.

Posted in Athletics, Campus Community | |

Lobos NCAA Run Begins Friday at Arizona State

June 1, 2011 | By Steve Carr
Austin House had a superb performance in helping the Lobos beat TCU 4-2 to claim the MWC title and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Austin House had a superb per­for­mance in help­ing the Lobos beat TCU 4–2 to claim the MWC title and earn an auto­matic bid to the NCAA tournament.

By Richard Stevens — Senior Writer/GoLobos.com -

In a way, the Lobos are exactly where they want to be and we’re not sim­ply talk­ing about sit­ting on a spot in the 64-team NCAA Divi­sion I bracket that pits the upstart Lobos against the No. 1 seed — and the home team — in the Tempe, Ariz., regional: Ari­zona State on Fri­day, June 3 at 8 p.m. MT.

There are few other fac­tors that just might favor the Lobos in this NCAA open­ing round game Fri­day in Tempe. Espe­cially if the Lobos can throw out some déjà vu-type magic — the kind of magic that turned the Lobos into the unde­feated champs of last week’s Moun­tain West Tournament.

Doesn’t it kind of look like New Mex­ico has its first-round oppo­nents exactly where they want them? Con­sider:
* The Lobos went into San Diego as the low­est seed in the MWC tour­ney. They are the low­est seed in the Tempe opener, too. The Sun Dev­ils are No. 1 fol­lowed by No. 2 Arkansas and No. 3 Charlotte.

* The Lobos have the worst record in Tempe, just like they did in San Diego. In fact, two teams in Tempe have fewer loses than the Lobos have wins. ASU is 36–16 and Char­lotte is 42–14. Arkansas is 38–20 while the Lobos march into post­sea­son at 20–39.

“But this is the post­sea­son now and we’re 4–0,” said UNM’s lone senior, Richard Olson.

Yeah, maybe the Lobos have the teams in the Tempe, regional look­ing past them. The Lobos stum­bled into the MWC tour­ney rid­ing a seven-game los­ing streak and were com­ing off a three-day ham­mer­ing in Iso­topes Park by TCU.

“We didn’t want to get embar­rassed again,” Olson said, partly explain­ing UNM’s turn­around in San Diego.

The Lobos used that TCU spank­ing to regroup, refo­cus and throw out that back-to-the-wall men­tal­ity that led to UNM play­ing the MWC tour­ney with a “nothing-to-lose men­tal­ity,” explained Lobo pitcher, Bobby Mares.

“I think we’ll go into Tempe the same way,” con­tin­ued Mares. “Nobody expected us to win in San Diego and I don’t think any­one will be favor­ing us in Tempe.”

No, the Lobos will not be favored in Tempe and won’t be favored against the ASU team that swept UNM ear­lier in the season.

It also gets tougher in Tempe. ASU is kind of like TCU — very good. Arkansas and Char­lotte are bet­ter than the field UNM walked through in San Diego.

The Lobos also had a “pay­back” atti­tude against TCU and that atti­tude is there for ASU, too.

The Sun Dev­ils sweep UNM 8–2, 7–5 and 8–1 Feb. 18–20 in Tempe, which was the sea­son opener for Ray Birmingham’s Lobos and the open­ing steps on that Mar­quis de Sade sched­ule Birm­ing­ham threw at his young pups.

It was a sched­ule that knocked the Lobos down plenty of times, but they kept get­ting up a bet­ter team. When the Lobos face ASU pitch­ers, those arms won’t be any­thing dif­fer­ent than what UNM saw against TCU, Okla­homa, Gon­zaga, Ari­zona or even Okla­homa State. The Lobo bats have been steeled by fire.

When the Lobo pitch­ers go at ASU, Arkansas or Char­lotte, well, they already have tossed their stuff at some of the top col­le­giate bat­ters in the West.

“We’ll go to Tempe with a lot of con­fi­dence,” said UNM short­stop Alex Allbritton.

That con­fi­dence comes with throw­ing out four wins at the MWC tour­na­ment. That con­fi­dence comes from hold­ing up a MWC cham­pi­onship tro­phy. That con­fi­dence comes from beat­ing down TCU twice and hold­ing the hot Horned Frogs to three runs and two runs.

At the 16 region­als, the four teams play a double-elimination tour­ney. The region­als will be held from Fri­day (June 3) to Mon­day (June 6). The eight super regional hosts will be named Mon­day (June 6). The 65th Men’s Col­lege World Series begins play Sat­ur­day (June 18) at the new TD Amer­i­trade Park Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.

The top eight seeds in this NCAA post­sea­son dance on the dia­mond are Vir­ginia (49–9), Florida (45–16), North Car­olina (45–14), South Car­olina (45–14), Florida State (42–17), Van­der­bilt (47–10), Texas (43–15) and Rice (41–19.

Vir­ginia has the most wins in the field and New Mex­ico has the fewest.

Yep, the Lobos are right where they want to be. Nobody sees the Lobos as a threat except the Lobos.

Deja vu!

Ticket Infor­ma­tion: All ses­sion passes are on sale Wednes­day, June 1 through Sun Devil Tick­ets. Sin­gle game tick­ets go on sale May 31 and are avail­able by call­ing (480) 727‑0000.

Posted in Athletics | |

New Mexico Athletic Teams Get Passing Grades on APR

May 24, 2011 | By Steve Carr
Go-Lobos-Logo

Over the six-year his­tory of the NCAA’s Aca­d­e­mic Progress Rate (APR), the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico has steadily shown improve­ment, but it’s going to be hard to top the offi­cial 2009-10 scores released recently by the NCAA. For the first time in school his­tory, all 21 UNM sports are above the 925 thresh­old for their four-year rolling score. In addi­tion, the Lobos had a single-year APR score of 973, the high­est in the six-year his­tory of the APR, and nearly 50 points higher than five years ago.

While all 21 sports are above 925, 14 sports can boast their highest-ever four-year APR score, includ­ing base­ball, foot­ball, men’s bas­ket­ball, men’s cross coun­try, men’s golf, men’s ski­ing, men’s soc­cer, men’s ten­nis, women’s bas­ket­ball, women’s cross coun­try, women’s soft­ball, women’s indoor track, women’s out­door track, and women’s vol­ley­ball. Last week, women’s bas­ket­ball and men’s cross coun­try were all hon­ored with pub­lic recog­ni­tion from the NCAA for being in the top 10 per­cent nation­ally in APR.

“We are very proud of the fine aca­d­e­mic track record of our student-athletes,” said Pres­i­dent David J. Schmidly. “In the last two years we have had 19 CoSIDA Aca­d­e­mic All-District hon­orees, and five Aca­d­e­mic All-Americans so far, giv­ing us some great indi­vid­ual suc­cesses. Hav­ing all 21 sports score at least a 925 show­cases not just team suc­cess, but depart­ment success.”

The single-year 2009-10 APR scores for the Lobos fea­ture nine dif­fer­ent pro­grams record­ing a per­fect 1000 score. Men’s Cross Coun­try, men’s golf, men’s ski­ing, men’s ten­nis, women’s bas­ket­ball, women’s golf, women’s soc­cer, women’s soft­ball, and women’s vol­ley­ball all had per­fect eli­gi­bil­ity and reten­tion scores. The nine per­fect scores is more than dou­ble the four recorded in 2008-09, and tops the pre­vi­ous record of seven, recorded in 2006-07.

“A lot of dif­fer­ent things go into hav­ing an incred­i­ble APR report such as this,” said Vice Pres­i­dent for Ath­let­ics Paul Krebs. “We have made a con­cen­trated effort with our aca­d­e­mic staff and have made rais­ing our APR scores a pri­or­ity, and it’s really a case of a lot of hard work pay­ing off. Cer­tainly our entire staff at our Aca­d­e­mic Suc­cess Cen­ter needs to be com­mended, as do the coaches and student-athletes.”

Also of note, 17 of UNM’s 21 sports improved their single-season score from what was posted five years ago, led by ski­ing, who went from an 882 in 2005-06 to a per­fect 1000. Of the four sports that didn’t improve, three recorded per­fect 1000s in both 2005-06 and 2009-10, and one dropped from 1000 to 944.

Accord­ing to the NCAA, “The APR is cal­cu­lated by allo­cat­ing points for eli­gi­bil­ity and reten­tion — the two fac­tors that research iden­ti­fies as the best indi­ca­tors of grad­u­a­tion. Each player on a given ros­ter earns a max­i­mum of two points per term, one for being aca­d­e­m­i­cally eli­gi­ble and one for stay­ing with the insti­tu­tion. A team’s APR is the total points of a team’s ros­ter at a given time divided by the total points pos­si­ble. Since this results in a dec­i­mal num­ber, the num­ber is mul­ti­plied by 1,000 for ease of ref­er­ence. Thus, a raw APR score of .925 trans­lates into the 925 that will become the stan­dard terminology.”

The APR is a rolling four-year aver­age, mean­ing the new scores for 2009-10 replace the 2005-06 single-rate scores, giv­ing the school a new four-year average.

Below are the APR scores for all Lobo Sports pro­grams
Men’s Pro­grams
Base­ball — 947
Foot­ball — 947
Bas­ket­ball — 932
Cross Coun­try — 1000
Golf — 968
Ski­ing — 957
Soc­cer — 972
Ten­nis — 978
Track, Indoor — 928
Track, Out­door — 928

Women’s Pro­grams
Soft­ball — 977
Bas­ket­ball — 996
Cross Coun­try — 966
Golf — 991
Ski­ing – 957
Soc­cer — 972
Swim­ming — 985
Ten­nis — 969
Track, Indoor — 961
Track, Out­door — 958
Vol­ley­ball — 980

Posted in Athletics, Featured, University News | |

UNM Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Basketball Given Public Recognition by NCAA for APR Scores

May 17, 2011 | By Steve Carr
Go-Lobos-Logo

For the first time since the debut of the NCAA’s APR (Aca­d­e­mic Progress Rate) scores in 2004-05, the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Lobo ath­letic depart­ment received APR Pub­lic Recog­ni­tion Awards for two sports. The UNM men’s cross coun­try and women’s bas­ket­ball teams were lauded by the NCAA for hav­ing multi-year APR scores that are in the top 10 per­cent in the nation. It marks the sec­ond straight year that the con­fer­ence cham­pion men’s cross coun­try team has been hon­ored, while it’s the first for the women’s bas­ket­ball team.

The full release of insti­tu­tional APR scores for all of the NCAA’s Divi­sion I uni­ver­si­ties will be released next Tues­day, and the Lobos are expected to have all 21 sports above the 925 thresh­old for the first time in school history.

“I am extremely proud of both our men’s cross coun­try team and our women’s bas­ket­ball team for earn­ing pub­lic recog­ni­tion from the NCAA,” said UNM Pres­i­dent David J. Schmidly. “We pride our­selves not just in how our ath­letic pro­grams com­pete on the field, but in the class­room, and this is a direct reflec­tion of that mission.

The men’s cross coun­try team has a per­fect 1000 score for their four-year rolling aver­age, while the women’s bas­ket­ball team is nearly per­fect at 996, hav­ing scored a per­fect 1000 for each of the last three years.

The APR is a math­e­mat­i­cal for­mula used to by the NCAA to deter­mine how well a uni­ver­sity ath­letic team’s stu­dents are pro­gress­ing towards grad­u­a­tion. The rate of 925 is con­sid­ered the bench­mark towards a 50 per­cent grad­u­a­tion rate.

“Hav­ing two pro­grams earn pub­lic recog­ni­tion is not only a tes­ta­ment to the hard work by our coaches and student-athletes, but to our whole aca­d­e­mic team as well, headed up by Henry Vil­le­gas,” said Vice Pres­i­dent for Ath­let­ics Paul Krebs. “Com­ing off a record fall where 60 student-athletes earned con­fer­ence aca­d­e­mic hon­ors, hav­ing mul­ti­ple teams earn APR pub­lic recog­ni­tion for the first time in five years con­tin­ues our goal of being the best both aca­d­e­m­i­cally and athletically.”

Accord­ing to the NCAA, “The APR is cal­cu­lated by allo­cat­ing points for eli­gi­bil­ity and reten­tion — the two fac­tors that research iden­ti­fies as the best indi­ca­tors of grad­u­a­tion. Each player on a given ros­ter earns a max­i­mum of two points per term, one for being aca­d­e­m­i­cally eli­gi­ble and one for stay­ing with the insti­tu­tion. A team’s APR is the total points of a team’s ros­ter at a given time divided by the total points pos­si­ble. Since this results in a dec­i­mal num­ber, the num­ber is mul­ti­plied by 1,000 for ease of ref­er­ence. Thus, a raw APR score of .925 trans­lates into the 925 that will become the stan­dard terminology.”

The APR is a rolling four-year aver­age, mean­ing the new scores for 2009-10 replace the 2005-06 single-rate scores, giv­ing the school a new four-year average.

The men’s cross coun­try pro­gram received a per­fect 1,000 score for the fifth con­sec­u­tive year, and sixth in the seven year his­tory of the APR. Women’s bas­ket­ball received a per­fect 1,000 for the third straight year.

On Tues­day, May 24, the NCAA will release the APR scores for every Divi­sion I institution.

UNM Sports Receiv­ing Pub­lic Recog­ni­tion (All-time since 2004-05)
Women’s Golf, 2004-05
Women’s Ten­nis, 2004-05
Women’s Ten­nis, 2005-06
Women’s Ten­nis, 2006-07
Women’s Ten­nis, 2007-08
Men’s Cross Coun­try, 2008-09
Men’s Cross Coun­try, 2009-10
Women’s Bas­ket­ball, 2009-10

Story cour­tesy of UNM Ath­let­ics Media Rela­tions Department

Posted in Athletics, University News | |

UNM Championship Golf Course to Conduct Pair of Summer Junior Golf Camps

May 16, 2011 | By Steve Carr
junior_golfer_range

The UNM Cham­pi­onship Golf Course will host two ses­sions of the 2011 Lobo Junior Golf Camp for boys and girls ages 7–18. The first ses­sion will be held June 6–9, while the sec­ond is set for June 13–16. The cost for the camp is $145, which includes instruc­tion, camp shirt, refresh­ments and prizes.

Part of the instruc­tion will include edu­ca­tional talks cov­er­ing rules, his­tory of the game, eti­quette, safety, equip­ment, col­lege golf schol­ar­ships, golf course man­age­ment, sports psy­chol­ogy, and video and track­man analy­sis. The camps will be taught by UNM Golf Coaches Glen Mil­li­can, Brian Kor­tan, Jill Tru­jillo and Becky Dover. As per NCAA rules, stu­dents who have attend col­lege are not eli­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate in the camp who have attended college.

To view a camp video visit: Lobo Junior Golf Camp Video.

For more infor­ma­tion and to reg­is­ter, visit: Lobo Junior Golf Camp.

Posted in Athletics, Events | |

Sixty Student-Athletes Earn Fall 2010 Academic Honors from MWC

February 11, 2011 | By Steve Carr
Lobos_Logo

Lobo Ath­let­ics had a record break­ing fall with five teams advanc­ing to NCAA post­sea­son
play and a final fall stand­ing of 23rd in the Learfield Sports Director’s Cup. Well not only can they play, but UNM student-athletes are pretty smart too. The Lobos had a school record 60 student-athletes named to the Fall 2010 Aca­d­e­mic All-Mountain West Con­fer­ence Team.

The 60 topped the pre­vi­ous best mark for the fall of 53 in 2007. UNM’s 60 was also the second-highest mark in the Moun­tain West, only behind BYU’s 78. Behind the Lobos were
Utah and TCU with 42 each.

UNM had 15 named for vol­ley­ball, 13 for foot­ball, 12 for men’s cross coun­try, 11 for women’s soc­cer, and nine for women’s cross coun­try. To be eli­gi­ble for selec­tion, student-athletes must have com­pleted at least one aca­d­e­mic term at the mem­ber insti­tu­tion while main­tain­ing a
cumu­la­tive grade point aver­age of 3.0 or bet­ter, and be a starter or sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor on their team.

Posted in Athletics, University News | |