Lobos, Aggies finish as regional also-rans
NMSU softball seeks NCAA bid
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The University of New Mexico women’s golf team shot the best of its three rounds Wednesday, but finished tied for 15th place at the 18-team NCAA Columbus Regional.
UNM posted an 8-overpar 296 in round three and 52-over-par for the tournament. Georgia, at 1-over the runaway winner by 15 shots, advances to the final round along with Duke, Arizona State, Kentucky, Michigan and Kent State.
Senior Caroline Jansson turned in a par-72 performance in round three to shoot up 23 spots on the leaderboard after shooting 79 and 78 in her first two rounds. Her final score of 13-over 229 tied for 45th overall.
The tourney wrapped up a season in which UNM earned a Mountain Westrecord ninth conference championship, the league freshman of the year (Myah McDonald) and coach of the year (Jill Trujillo).
■ New Mexico State finished tied for 10th at the 18-team Stanford (Calif.) Regional, which was dominated by the host team. The Western Athletic Conference champions’ final tally of 26-over 878 was 54 strokes behind the champion Cardinal, which advances to the NCAA Championship along with Wake Forest, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Arizona and Southern Cal.
NMSU’s Pun Chanachai shot par 71 Wednesday, 2-over 215 for the tourney and missed qualifying for NCAAs as an individual by two strokes.
TRACK AND FIELD: UNM has 38 athletes competing in the Mountain West Conference outdoor championships Thursday through Saturday in Clovis, Calif. The event will be streamed on the league’s website (themw.com).
Leading the Lobos out west are two program record-setters: Tianna Holmes, who set the 200 meters record (23.22 seconds) at the West Coast Relays, and high jumper Jamari Drake, whose 5 feet, 11.25 inches clearance at the Don Kirby Tailwind is the fourth-best NCAA mark of the season.
UNM’s Charlotte Prouse posted a personal best (9:39.78) in a loaded women’s 3,000 steeplechase field last week at Mt. SAC. She is ranked 62nd in the world in the event.
Among the top contenders for UNM’s men are pole vaulter Gabriel Brown (a season best of 17 feet, 0.75 inches) and 200 and 400 star Carlos Salcido, the league’s athlete of the week after two first-place finishes at the UNLV Spring Opener.
■ New Mexico State heads to the Western Athletic Conference meet in Edinburg, Texas with with the best marks or times in the conference in five individual events plus the 400- and 1,600- meter relays. Action streams on the WAC Digital Network Thursday and ESPN+ Friday and Saturday.
SOFTBALL: In Seattle, top-seeded New Mexico State (29-19, 14-4) begins its WAC Championship chase on Thursday at 5 p.m. against No. 4 Utah Valley (23-26, 8-10) in the four-team double-elimination league tournament, the winner of which will earn an automatic NCAA tournament bid.
Host Seattle University and Grand Canyon are the two other teams in the event. All games will stream on ESPN+.