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Courtesy of Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA
NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced Tuesday its National Athletes and Coaches of the Year for the NCAA Division II Cross Country season following the championships in Louisville, Kentucky, this past weekend.
NCAA Division II Cross Country individual champions Tabor Stevens of Adams State and Kendra Foley of Grand Valley State were named the men’s and women’s USTFCCCA National Athletes of the Year, respectively.
Damon Martin of Adams State and Grand Valley State's Jerry Baltes earned men’s and women’s National Coach of the Year honors, respectively, in leading their teams to their third national titles in a row.
Kendra Foley | Grand Valley State | Women's National Athlete of the Year
Not since 2001 had a Division II woman both won the national individual title and led her team to the national team title. Not until Saturday, that is, as Kendra Foley took the individual win and led six Grand Valley State All-Americans to a decisive team victory. She is the first Women’s National Athlete of the Year from GVSU since Mandi Zemba in 2005.
Foley covered the rain-shortened 5780-meter course in 21:05.8 by nearly six seconds over teammate Allyson Winchester and another three seconds over another teammate in Jessica Janecke. The best non-GVSU finisher, fourth-place Emily Frith of Bellarmine, was 11 seconds back. After battling with Western Washington’s Katelyn Steen for half of the race, Foley made her move to build up a five-second lead at 4k and an eight-second advantage at 5k.
She sat out the Midwest Regional, but had previously claimed the GLIAC title ahead of Winchester and Janecke in second and third, respectively. Fifth-place was the sweet spot for Foley in 2014, as that’s where she finished at UW-Oshkosh, Notre Dame and the Spartan Invitational. She also finished 23rd overall in the Division I race at Roy Griak out of 349 runners.
Jerry Baltes | Grand Valley State | Women's National Coach of the Year
Jerry Baltes guided his Grand Valley State Lakers to their third consecutive national team title and their fourth in the past five years, earning him his fourth National Women’s Coach of the Year honors.
No team from either gender matched his Lakers’ six All-America awards, who propelled GVSU to a 65-point victory over runner-up Hillsdale by a score of 50-115 – the seventh-biggest margin of victory in the meet’s history. Even more impressively, he guided Kendra Foley to the national title, Allyson Winchester to a national runner-up finish and Jessica Janecke to a third-place effort. This marked the first time an NCAA DII women’s team had swept the top three spots en route to a national title.
Baltes’ Lakers were just as dominant throughout the duration of the season. They recorded GLIAC and Midwest Region championship titles, as well as wins at UW-Oshkosh and Notre Dame.
