5 moments to remember

1. Double Gold for Okagbare

Blessing Okagbare was no stranger to finding her way onto the winner's podium, but even her experience at the national championship meet for the indoor season of track and field had to have been special.

Okagbare topped the podium not once, but twice at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, winning national titles in the women's 60 meters and the long jump. She became the 12th woman in program history to win an indoor championship.

In the 60-meter final, she took down Gabby Mayo of Texas A&M and defending champion Lakya Brookins of South Carolina with a time of 7.18 while in the long jump, Okagbare set an NCAA Indoor Championships record with a leap of 6.87m.

In the process, she also made program history. Okagbare became the first woman to win two titles in a national meet and was just the third Miner overall to have two first-place finishes at an indoor national meet, joining Bob Beamon and Suleiman Nyambul.

Okagbare's efforts this season have helped the women's team capture their first Conference USA title and a prestigious national ranking, where the Miners currently sit as the 12th best team in the nation.

2. Culpepper's
Scoring Rampage

Whenever someone is riding the hot hand during a game, odds are that the team continues feeding that player the ball. When that player happens to be Randy Culpepper, the results are game-changing.

Culpepper had three memorable performances this season that not only proved to be entertaining, but helped UTEP sail smoothly through the conference season.

Against UCF Jan. 23, Culpepper went off for 39 points, including nine three-pointers that helped lead UTEP to a 37-point rout of the Knights on the road, courtesy of 25 second-half points.

He topped that total at home against East Carolina Feb. 13 with 31 of his career-high 45 points coming in the first half. Culpepper made nine three-pointers and made 14 of 18 shots overall.

In the conference-clinching game at Marshall March 3, his 32 points helped the Miners overcome a double-digit deficit to defeat the Thundering Herd 80-76. There was a stretch early in the second half when he scored 10 straight points that turned a seven point deficit into a three-point lead.

3. Going to the Big Dance

With a group of core players entering their junior years and the addition of some key transfers, the 2009-10 campaign was going to be the year where men's basketball team was going to take the leap from CBI participants to something bigger.

With players like Randy Culpepper, Julyan Stone and Claude Britten and the addition of Derrick Caracter, Christian Polk and Jeremy Williams, UTEP was picked to battle for the conference title and a chance at the NCAA tournament.

But a swoon in December and January saw the Miners split 10 games, including losses to New Mexico State, Texas Tech and BYU that suddenly cast some doubt on the team in the infancy stages of the conference season.

After losing to Houston on Jan. 13, UTEP did not drop another game for two months as the Miners ran the table the rest of the regular season. Along the way, the Miners won a pair of games against UAB and snapped Memphis' 64-game conference winning streak.

Their 26-6 record was good enough to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament. The Miners held the lead at halftime, but a second-half barrage by the Butler Bulldogs ended UTEP's season with a 77-59 loss.

4.Untouchable Townsend

While pitcher Stacie Townsend has had a banner year in the circle, nothing that she has accomplished can be topped by what happened March 18 at Belmont University's Aquinas Field in Nashville.

The senior set two milestones in UTEP's 9-0 opening game victory over the Bruins, by setting a program record for strikeouts and for tossing her first career no-hitter.

On the way to the no-hitter, many of Townsend's pitches went untouched as the first 15 outs were recorded via strikeout.

In seven innings, Townsend allowed just two walks and a hit batter, but was spared any damage as she struck out a program-best 18 batters.

That performance was the feather on the cap for Townsend, who has had a dominant year in both the circle and the batter's box. Townsend ranks in the top five in Conference USA in six offensive categories and five pitching categories.

5. Catching Fire

Even though winter is better known for long stretches of cold and uncomfortable conditions, for three of UTEP's athletic teams, it proved to be a prime opportunity to rewrite the record books for their hot streaks.

After a tough start to their season, tennis benefited from a home-heavy schedule for the month of February to tie a team record for consecutive wins by taking seven in a row.
Also having a less than pleasant beginning to their campaign was softball, who had lost their first three games of the year, but once that first win was recorded, the beginning of a record streak was in the making.

The Miners won 13 consecutive games to set a new team record and along the way won two tournaments. The offense powered the team in that stretch that included winning margins of 11, 13 and 17 runs.

Even the men's basketball team caught fire to close out the regular season, winning  16 straight games that helped win the Conference USA regular season title and get to the tournament championship game.