Katy McCarter Named Recipient of 2024-25 Mountain West Hal Rothman Sportsmanship Award – College of New Mexico Lobos athletics

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – New Mexico swimmer Katy McCarter and UNLV soccer participant Jackson Woodard have been named the tenth and eleventh recipients of the Mountain West’s Hal Rothman Sportsmanship Award.

Established in 2005-06 and renamed in honor of the late UNLV college athletics consultant Hal Rothman in 2007, the Mountain West Hal Rothman Sportsmanship Award is offered to a student-athlete in a MW-sponsored sport who has distinguished him or herself via sportsmanship and moral conduct. The student-athlete additionally should reveal good citizenship exterior of the sports-competition setting and be in good tutorial standing.

McCarter and Woodard have been chosen by the MW Recognition Committee, which is made up of athletics administrators, senior lady directors and college athletics representatives from across the league.

McCarter was a four-year swimmer for the Lobos, competing within the sprints and backstroke occasions. A senior from Fairbanks, Alaska, McCarter was an distinctive pupil, incomes Academic All-MW honors 4 instances in her profession, and the consummate teammate. When she wasn’t swimming her personal race, she was the primary one to the facet of the pool to encourage and cheer for her teammates. A testomony to what a superb sport she is, McCarter additionally routinely engaged in dialog together with her opponents on the pool deck, attending to know them and wishing them luck earlier than races and congratulating them on an excellent race after the competitors. McCarter is the primary girls’s swimming student-athlete to win Hal Rothman Sportsmanship Award and the second New Mexico student-athlete, becoming a member of Habtom Samuel, who received final 12 months.

Woodard, the 2024 MW Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time first-team Academic All-American, was a semifinalist for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year, given to the soccer participant who has demonstrated management by exhibiting distinctive braveness, integrity and sportsmanship each on and off the sphere. A vocal chief within the locker room and on the sideline, Woodard additionally led by instance, exhibiting up first to conferences and leaving the burden room final, in addition to holding youthful gamers to the identical requirements and mentoring them. Opposing coaches and officers routinely lauded his respectful demeanor, whether or not it was congratulating an opponent after a troublesome loss, serving to a fallen participant stand up, celebrating a teammate’s success or selecting up flags. The senior linebacker from Little Rock, Arkansas, who’s at the moment battling for a spot on the Houston Texans’ 53-man roster, was additionally lively within the Las Vegas neighborhood, spearheading youth clinics and volunteering with Meals on Wheels and in native colleges. Woodard is the primary UNLV student-athlete and the primary soccer participant to win the Hal Rothman Sportsmanship Award.

Past winners
2024-25: Katy McCarter, Swimming & Diving, New Mexico & Jackson Woodard, Football, UNLV
2023-24: Habtom Samuel, Men’s Track & Field, New Mexico
2013-14: Chari Hawkins, Women’s Track & Field, Utah State
2012-13: William Kent, Men’s Track & Field, Air Force
2011-12: Dalton Boatright, Men’s Fencing, Air Force
2010-11: Daniel Trapani, Men’s Fencing, Air Force
2008-09: Erin Lorenzen, Rifle, TCU
2007-08: Peter French, Men’s Fencing, Air Force
2006-07: Kevin Bretting, Men’s Swimming & Diving, Wyoming
2005-06: Katie Battazzo, Women’s Soccer, Utah

Note: Award will not be offered yearly.