HOUSE MEMORIAL 50

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2016

INTRODUCED BY

Sarah Maestas Barnes

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM.

     WHEREAS, in one of the most dominating performances in national collegiate athletic association history, the number one university of New Mexico women's cross country team won its first national title on November 15, 2015 at the national collegiate athletic association division one cross country championships; and

     WHEREAS, the Lobos' championship is the second national collegiate athletic association title in university of New Mexico history; and

     WHEREAS, the university of New Mexico's talented quad of runners lived up to their reputation as the team to beat, running through the thirty-one-team field to an eighty-point victory over runner-up Colorado; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico's margin of victory is the fifth largest in national collegiate athletic association history and the best since 2004; and

     WHEREAS, senior Courtney Frerichs led the Lobo runners over the women's six-kilometer course, placing fourth overall in nineteen minutes, forty-eight seconds; and

     WHEREAS, Courtney was the Lobos' top runner at four of the five meets at which the team ran in 2015, and her finish is the best in the university of New Mexico women's cross country program history; and

     WHEREAS, sophomore Alice Wright was not far behind Courtney, finishing fifth overall, followed by junior Rhona Auckland, who finished thirteenth overall, senior Calli Thackery, who finished fifteenth overall, and senior Molly Renfer, who finished twenty-fourth overall; and

     WHEREAS, all five athletes earned all-American honors, making them the first women's team to have five all-Americans in a single championship since Villanova in 2009; and

     WHEREAS, rounding out the New Mexico contingent, Heleene Tambet finished seventy-fourth and Whitney Thornburg finished one hundred ninth; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin had nothing but praise for the championship winners who earned the right to wear turquoise and represent New Mexico;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the university of New Mexico women's cross country team be congratulated on its national collegiate athletic association division one cross country championship win; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to coach Joe Franklin and the university of New Mexico women's cross country team.

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