ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. --- Around the offices of the University of New Mexico Athletic Department, Connor Gilbert is a man of many hats. He serves as the publicity director for volleyball and baseball, as well as for UNM's nationally renowned cross country and track and field teams.
Just this season, he has handled publicity, media, social media, and whatever else is needed for 29 volleyball matches, 51 baseball games, 7 cross-country meets, and 25 track meets, with nearly 60 of those events hosted by UNM. Additionally, he oversaw gameday social media for UNM's six home football games and most of UNM's home men's basketball games.
Somewhere in all of that, he had some time for his true passion, which is writing. Fittingly, as Gilbert was traveling with the track team and superstar Habtom Samuel to the Mountain West Championships in Clovis, California, Gilbert officially earned a major writing honor.
Gilbert finished runner-up in the College Sports Communicator's Fred Stabley, Jr. Writing Contest for District 6 in the Athletic Profile category for his story, ‘Heart of a Champion’: The Unyielding Drive of Habtom Samuel.
District 6 for the Fred Stabley, Jr. Writing Contest comprises all Division I schools in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Gilbert's story on Samuel chronicles Samuel's rise as one of the greatest long-distance runners ever to run on NCAA courses and opens with one of Samuel's more remarkable accomplishments. Not his national title, but his 2024 runner-up finish, in which he ran about half the race with one shoe. In barely above freezing weather. In Wisconsin. In the national championship race.
From there, Gilbert's story of Samuel's winding road to his eventual 2025 national title features as many twists and turns as the championship cross-country courses Samuel tears through.
The story on GoLobos (linked above) is punctuated with video, social media, and photos, the last two of which were also staged and composed by Gilbert.
"As we were approaching the 2025 cross country season, Connor had a vision of a story to tell about Habtom, and he wanted to do a long-form piece, accented with photos, video, and social that our web platform can allow us to do," said Frank Mercogliano, Assoc. A.D. for Communications. "His long-term vision for the piece really allowed him to get everything in place and truly tell a wonderful story. The fact that Habtom trusted Connor so much to tell his story really shows in the writing, and it's fitting that his story of a great champion has been recognized by his peers."
The writing award isn't overly new for Gilbert, who is a 2020 graduate of Gonzaga, where he was the sports editor of the Gonzaga Bulletin while majoring in English and Journalism. While there, he won a pair of SPJ Awards for sports and news writing.
With Gilbert traveling to cover Track and Field this week, and then traveling to Arizona next week with baseball, to be followed by a trip to Prague with UNM Volleyball to tell the story of their foreign exhibition, he will have plenty to write up and cover in the weeks ahead for Lobo fans.