UNM cross country gets $30,000 gift from Branch
Lobo supporter helps national champs after Governor vetoes request
What Gov. Susana Martinez denied, Margaret Branch has provided.
The University of New Mexico announced on Friday that Branch, a longtime supporter of UNM athletics, has bestowed a gift of $30,000 to the Lobo cross-country program.
Earlier this month, Martinez vetoed a capital outlay request in that amount for the purchase of new equipment, treadmills in particular.
“I saw a gap in funding, and I decided to fill it,” Branch said in a UNM news release. “It was an honor to do so.”
In November, the UNM women’s cross-country team won the NCAA championship. It was the Lobos’ second title in three years. Ednah Kurgat, a UNM sophomore, won the individual title.
Lobos coach Joe Franklin said Branch’s gift will help the program maintain its excellence.
“Our goals have always been to compete at the highest level and ... provide our students with first-class opportunities
both academically and athletically,” Franklin said. “Mrs. Branch’s gift will allow us to continue to strive for those goals.”
Branch and her late husband, Turner, both Albuquerque attorneys and both UNM alumni, have been donors to Lobo athletics for years.
In 2012, the Branches pledged a donation of $1.5 million to the athletic department. In response, the Lobos’ synthetic-turf field at Dreamstyle Stadium was named in their honor. Turner Branch died in 2016. In vetoing the $30,000 cross-country request, Martinez was not leaving UNM athletics empty-handed. She approved capital outlay expenditures of $657,800 toward a new Olympic sports training facility, $250,000 for Dreamstyle Stadium improvements — which UNM intends to use to improve Wi-Fi technology — and $150,000 to upgrade basketball facilities.