Colorado Springs, Colo. — For the fourth consecutive season, the University of New Mexico led the Mountain West with the most Spring Academic All-Conference awards, picking up a school record 128. That gave the Lobo athletic department 189 for the 2014-15 academic year, leading the Mountain West overall for a third straight year.
The 128 Spring Academic All-Conference selections were four more than last year’s 124, and the 189 were eight more than the 2013-14 total. Colorado State was second to UNM in the Spring with 104 selections, and Utah State’s 153 overall selections was second to the Lobos.
“I’m extremely proud of the academic successes that our teams have shown this year,” said Paul Krebs, Vice President for Athletics. “In the last four years we have had 682 student-athletes earn Mountain West Academic All-Conference honors, and we have won a program record 36 championships. We have been winning in the classroom and on the field and it’s a tribute to our coaches, our Student-Athlete Success team, our fantastic academic faculty and most of all to our student-athletes, who work very hard.”
It seemed like each sport had something to hang its hat on as many of UNM’s programs had record numbers or kept up significant streaks.
*Baseball under the direction of Ray Birmingham was second in the Mountain West with 13 selections. UNM is the only baseball program in Mountain West with double-digit honorees in each of the last three years.
*Men’s basketball under Craig Neal led the league with seven selections, and UNM now has 13 under Craig Neal after having 14 the previous six seasons. In addition, the seven were the most by any Mountain West men’s basketball team since BYU had 8 in 2006-07.
*Women’s basketball under Yvonne Sanchez tied for the league lead with 10 Academic All-Conference picks, which tied for the second-most in program history. The team had 12 in 2010-11.
*Men’s golf under Glen Millican tied for league lead with six honorees. The six tied for the second-most in school history behind the 2008-09 squad which had eight.
*Women’s golf under Jill Trujillo had five Academic All-Conference selections, tied for third in the Mountain West. However, the five represented 83 percent of the squad as the team has just six players. UNM’s women’s golf program is the only Mountain West program with at least five Academic All-Conference selections each of the last nine years.
*Softball under Erica Beach tied for Mountain West lead with 12 and it marks the third straight year that Beach’s squad has at least tied for league lead. The 12 was a school record and third-most in Mountain West softball history.
*Swimming and Diving under Kunio Kono had 20 Academic All-Conference picks, which was tied for 5th in league. Kono’s swimming and diving team is the only Mountain West program with 20 or more in each of the last four years.
*Men’s Tennis under Bart Scott had eight Academic All-Conference selections to lead the Mountain West for the fourth straight year. The eight tied a school and MW record as UNM also had eight in 2012-13.
*Women’s Tennis, now under Kelcy McKenna but previously under Erica Perkins Jasper had five, which was 8th in the league. The five selections kept up UNM’s amazing streak as the Lobo women’s tennis team is the only Mountain West women’s tennis program with at least five selections in all 13 years of the All-Academic team’s existence.
*Men’s Track & Field under Joe Franklin had 17 selections, fourth in Mountain West and the highest program total in five years.
*Women’s Track & Field, also under Franklin had 25, third in the Mountain West and tied for second-most in program history.
Editor’s Note: The original printout repeated one of the men’s track and field athletes because of a page break. This story was editted to reflect that the actual number for the Spring is 128 and for men’s track it is 17. — Frank Mercogliano