Albuquerque — Lobo Football’s Annual Night of Champions weightlifting competition will be held Wednesday, March 12, at 7 p.m. in the weightroom of the Tow Diehm Athletics Facility. Admission is free and bleachers will be set up for fans.
The competition marks the final day of off-season conditioning for the team. The first of 15 spring workouts start on Tuesday, March 25. The annual Cherry-Silver game will be held on Saturday, April 19, at 2 p.m. at University Stadium.
Unlike previous years, Wednesday’s competition will produce a full-fledged winning team. Head strength and conditioning coordinator Mark Paulsen has divided two dozen UNM players evenly: 12 on the Cherry team and 12 on the Silver team. The group that collectively lifts the most weight will be declared the winner. The losing team has to remove all the weights and machines from the weightroom on Thursday to clear the way for the new flooring that will be installed next week during Spring Break.
On paper, the competition looks extremely even. Based on the best lifts of the individuals on the teams, Paulsen has projected the Silver team will lift 4,568 pounds while the Cherry team will lift 4,570. The competitors will participate in four lifts: bench press, incline bench, power clean and squat.
Should the teams tie at the end of the competition, Paulsen has come up with an entertaining tiebreaker that will be performed at halftime by selected offensive and defensive linemen who are not part of the weightlifting competition.
The spring testing has already produced three position records: WR Terrence Thomas a 311-lb. power clean, S Josh Bazinet a 555-lb. squat and LB Daniel Gawronski a 405-lb. incline press.
Cherry Team
Hank Baskett
Kenny Byrd
Kyle Coulter
Zach Cresap
Daniel Gawronski
Casey Kelly
Shannon Kincaid
Martin Lovato
DonTrell Moore
Matt Poehlmann
Robert Turner
Kevin Walton
Silver Team
Josh Bazinet
Landrick Brody
Justin Colburn
Dwight Counter
Fola Fashola
Daniel Kegler
Jason Lenzmeier
Jerrell Malone
Guillermo Morrison
D.J. Renteria
Zach Rupp
Joe Selander