COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — 28 University of New Mexico track and field athletes were selected to the Mountain West Indoor Track & Field All-Conference men’s and women’s teams on Monday. All-MW selections are awarded to the top three finishers in each event at last weekend’s MW Indoor Championships.
New Mexico, which swept the MW men’s and women’s team titles for the second straight year, combined for 27 combined All-MW selections at the MW Indoor Championships, which were held Feb. 26-28 at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque.
For the men, nine individuals and one relay team claimed 13 total honors, while nine women women and two relay teams scored 14 total selections.
Leading the group of recipients for the New Mexico men were the athletes behind seven individual titles.
Champions Adam Bitchell (3000-meter run, 5000), Ridge Jones (60), Elmar Engholm (mile) Allan Hamilton (long jump), Django Lovett (high jump) and Warrick Campbell (triple jump) all collected honors for their performances.
Bitchell and Hamilton earned additional honors, as they both finished third in the mile and the triple jump, respectively.
Also earning honors were Alex Herring (800), Ross Matheson (mile) and Yannick Roggatz (long jump), as well as the distance medley relay team of Chris Graham, Cheyne Dorsey, Adam Monroe and Matheson.
The 13 All-MW selections garnered by the men is two shy of the program record of 15 set the last two years, which were also New Mexico victories.
On the women’s side, six events titles paced the women to record-tying haul.
Sammy Silva (800, mile), Holly Van Grinsven (400), Alice Wright (5000) Aasha Marler (triple jump) and the distance medley relay team of Nicola Hood, Kelsi Lewis, Emily Hosker-Thornhill and Nicole Roberts were all accorded all-conference honors for their event victories.
Van Grinsven and Wright captured additional plaudits, as well, as both were runners up in the 60 hurdles and the 3000, respectively.
Tamara Armoush (800), Samantha Bowe (pentathlon), Sophie Connor (mile), Jannell Hadnot (triple jump), Calli Thackery (3000) and the 4×400 relay team of Haley Sanner, Zoe Howell, Faith Cobb and Van Grinsven also received selections.
The 14 all-conference nods for the Lobo women ties the program’s highest total indoors set last year when the women won their first-ever indoor title. The 16 total individuals recognized — either on their own or as a relay member — also ties the program record set in 2012.
UNM head coach Joe Franklin also repeated as Coach of the Year for both the men and the women, and is the first coach in conference history to sweep the awards.
NOTES: Unrelated to the All-Mountain West announcement but relevant to the MW Championships, New Mexico is setting records when it comes to winning conference titles: New Mexico is the only school in NCAA Division I to sweep its conference titles in cross country and indoor track & field in 2014-15 … UNM is also one of two FBS schools, along with Arkansas, to win 18 (of a possible 34) conference titles from the 2009-10 season to present … New Mexico has also qualified six individuals — Engholm, Bitchell, Lovett, Hamilton, Silva and Thackery — and a relay team to the NCAA Indoor Championships March 13-14 in Fayetteville, Ark. Ridge Jones is one spot from qualifying, but can still earn entrance based off of athletes declining their bids (which, in the case of sprinters, can occur if one who qualified in both the 60 and the 200 choses one over the other).