Lobos Get Fall Record 66 on MW All-Academic Squad
2017 Fall Mountain West All-Academic Team
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Led by a record setting year by Lobo Football, The University of New Mexico had 66 student-athletes named to the 2017 Mountain West All-Academic team. The 66 honorees are a program record for the Fall, topping the 61 in 2014. It marked the fourth straight year in which UNM picked up at least 60 honors.
Overall, Boise State led the way with 73 honorees with New Mexico second. New Mexico has had the most Mountain West All-Academic selections in each of the least five academic years. Last year UNM was tied for fourth after the Fall.
UNM got a program-record 23 honorees in football, marking the most for the Lobo football team, whose previous best was 20 in 2014. The Mountain West implemented the program in the 2002-03 season, and of the 16 seasons that the awards have been handed out, the top four years in football all belong to Bob Davie.
The program picked up 20 in 2014, and 19 each in 2015 and 2016, giving the team 81 over the last four seasons. New Mexico and Boise State are the only football programs over the last four seasons to have at least 19 Mountain West All-Academic selections in each season.
While the football team set a record, two other programs tied their high-water marks. Women’s soccer, which advanced to the Mountain West championship match, picked up 18 honorees, tying with the 2015 team. That 2015 team was head coach Heather Dyche’s first Lobo squad. The UNM volleyball team also had 11 honorees, tying with the 2010 squad for the most in program history.
The 18 for the women’s soccer team was tied for the third-most this season among soccer teams, and the 11 for volleyball equaled the top mark in that sport.
UNM’s national championship women’s cross country team led the Mountain West with 10 selections. The team not only won the NCAA title, but was the USTFCCCA Academic Team of the Year. Ednah Kurgat, who was the Honda Award winner and the undefeated national champion, was one of the 10 Lobos to earn honors. The men’s cross country team had four honorees.