NEW ORLEANS – Following the 2016 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships this past weekend in Pittsburg, Kansas, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced Wednesday this season's National Athletes of the Year, as voted on by the coaches.
Lamar Hargrove of Tiffin and Emily Oren of Hillsdale were named the Men's and Women's Track Athletes of the Year, respectively.
Hargrove, a junior from Cincinnati, Ohio, may not have pulled off a third consecutive streak of the 60- and 200-meter national titles, but he led his team to something even more historic: it's first indoor national team title in program history.
With a win at 200 meters, a runner-up finish at 60 meters, and a leg of the national-title-clinching runner-up 4×400 relay, Hargrove scored 20 points to earn co-high scorer honors at the meet. His 20.81 to win the 200 crown was a new NCAA Division II all-time record, and he covered 60 meters in 6.66 for eight more points. He ran the second leg of the 4×400 relay that ultimately won the first of four sections and held on to finish second overall.
During the regular season he won a pair of GLIAC titles at 60 and 200 meters.
Oren, a senior from Holland, Michigan, is the Women's Track Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive season. She accounted for 22½ of Hillsdale's runner-up 58 points, including three national titles in the mile, 3000 and as part of the winning distance medley relay.
She surpassed not only the meet record but also the all-time Division II record in the mile, running 4:35.48 to top Emilee Trost of Minnesota Duluth by two seconds. She followed that up with a 9:27.98 over 3000 meters to lead a 1-2-4 Hillsdale effort in the event.
She won titles in the same events at the GLIAC Championships during the regular season.
NEW ORLEANS – Following the 2016 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships this past weekend in Pittsburg, Kansas, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced Wednesday this season's National Coaches of the Year, as voted on by the coaches.
National championship-winning head coaches Jeremy Croy of Tiffin and Victor Thomas of Lincoln (Mo.) were named the Men's and Women's Coaches of the Year, respectively. Tiffin's Gray Horn and Hillsdale's Joe Lynn were voted Men's and Women's Assistant Coaches of the Year, respectively.
Croy, in his 16th season guiding the Tiffin program, coached his Dragons to the program's first NCAA national team title in any sport. A clutch runner-up effort by the 4×400 relay – which entered the meet seeded 13th out of 13 teams – giving them a walk-off victory over 2015 national champion Adams State, 49-47.
He got a national title at 200 meters from Lamar Hargrove, who also finished runner-up at 60 meters and ran a leg of that fateful 4×400. Distance runner James Ngandu pitched in with a runner-up 3000-meter finish and a fifth-place effort at 5000 meters, while Dylan Cornwell was fourth in the pole vault and Reginald Thomas finished fifth behind Hargrove over 60 meters.
During the regular season, his men were runners-up at the GLIAC Championships.
Horn, in his second year coaching sprints and combined events for the Dragons, had a significant impact on Tiffin's title run. Between high-point scorer Lamar Hargrove, the title-clinching 4×400 relay and Reginald Thomas, his athletes scored 30 points of Tiffin's winning 49. Hargrove twice set NCAA Division II all-time records at 200 meters, including a 20.81 to win the national title.
At the GLIAC Championships, his men scored a combined 76 points.
Lynn, in his second year coaching distance runners at Hillsdale, led his endurance runners to 54 points – all but four of the Chargers' runner-up 58-point haul. He guided Emily Oren to a sweep of the mile and 3000 titles, and she also ran a leg of the winning DMR. Joining Oren at 3000 meters were runner-up Kristina Galat and fourth-place Hannah McIntyre. Those two teamed up again at 5000 meters as McIntyre was third and Galat finished fourth.
At the GLIAC Championships, his runners won conference titles in the mile, at 3000 meters and in the distance medley relay, with a runner-up finish at 5000 meters. Oren led a 1-2-3 Chargers sweep at 3000 meters.
