Mazza-Downie, Sathyanathan sweep top MW track honors
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Claiming the top Mountain West Conference awards for the 2023 track and field season on Thursday, New Mexico’s Amelia Mazza-Downie and Lokesh Sathyanathan were named the Female Student-Athlete of the Year and Male Student-Athlete of the Year, respectively.
Both All-Americans and Mountain West champions, the duo made it the first time since the conference began issuing the awards in 2008 that any school has swept the outdoor honors in the same season. Overall it was the fourth time a conference school has swept the honors, with UNM doing so during the 2010 indoor season, BYU achieving the feat during the 2011 indoor season, and Boise State claiming both men’s and women’s honors in the 2016 indoor season. New Mexico is the only conference school to sweep the awards in the same season more than once.
Claiming two All-America awards during the outdoor season, Mazza-Downie finished fourth in the 10,000 meters and ninth in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Championships earlier this month. The third-year Lobo ran a 10,000 meters time of 32:51.90 minutes to earn first-team All-America, and a time of 15:56.35 minutes in the 5,000 meters to earn second-team All-America honors.
Mazza-Downie won her first Mountain West track and field title on May 13, running a 5,000 meters time of 15:44.37 minutes to top the conference field. She also broke Weini Kelati’s school record in the 10,000 meters this spring, running a time of 32:07.62 minutes in her outdoor debut on April 15 at the Bryan Clay Invitational in California.
Mazza-Downie, who was named the Mountain West Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year last fall, became just the second person in conference history to win the top honor in both sports during the same academic year. She joined Boise State’s Emma Bates, who was the 2014 Mountain West Cross Country Athlete of the Year and Outdoor Track & Field Athlete of the Year.
It was a decorated debut collegiate campaign for Sathyanathan, who earned second-team All-America in the long jump by finishing 15th at the NCAA Championships. Sathyanathan capped his freshman year with a jump of 7.66 meters (25’ 1.75”) at the national championship meet.
That came after he earned the Mountain West Performer of the Meet award by winning the conference title in the long jump on May 12. Sathyanathan crushed his PR with a jump of 8.02 meters (26’ 3.75”) to place first at the conference championships. It was his second all-conference performance of the year, after he finished third at the Mountain West Indoor Championships.
Sathyanathan became just the second Lobo student-athlete to earn both a Performer of the Meet and Student-Athlete of the Year award during the same year, joining Sandy Fortner who achieved that feat during the 2010 indoor season.
University of New Mexico All-Time Mountain West Track Student-Athlete of the Year Award Winners
Men’s Indoor Student-Athlete of the Year
Lee Emanuel – 2009, 2010
Kendall Spencer – 2012
Luke Caldwell – 2013, 2014
Adam Bitchell – 2015
Men’s Outdoor Student-Athlete of the Year
Lee Emanuel – 2010
Peter Callahan – 2015
Josh Kerr – 2017, 2018
Lokesh Sathyanathan – 2023*
Women’s Indoor Student-Athlete of the Year
Sandy Fortner – 2010*
Weini Kelati – 2020
Women’s Outdoor Student-Athlete of the Year
Amelia Mazza-Downie – 2023
*-Indicates also won Mountain West Performer of the Meet award during same season.