United Athletic Conference

 

Following a vote of coaches from around the Western Athletic Conference, UT Rio Grande Valley thrower Paul May and Grand Canyon heptathlete Niki Xydona have been named 2021 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Athletes of the Year.

 

May, a graduate student from Bloomfield, Conn., was named Outstanding Field Performer at the 2021 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships after winning the men's shot put by over a meter with a throw of 18.09m (59-4.25) and placing second in the discus with a throw of 50.38m (165-3) and the hammer with a throw of 57.19m (187-7). He will be competing in both the shot put and discus at this week's NCAA West Preliminary Round at Texas A&M.

 

Xydona, a senior from Thiva, Greece, was both the High Point Scorer and the Outstanding Field Performer at the WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championship, winning the heptathlon and posting top-five finishes in the high jump (third), long jump (fourth) and javelin (fourth).

 

The Grand Canyon men's and women's teams swept at the WAC Championships in Edinburg, Texas. The GCU men finished with 263.5 points to earn the title while the women posted 208 points to win the women's title. This marks the third consecutive and fourth overall title for the GCU women's team and the third title for the GCU men's team.

 

The GCU men took home gold in seven events as Jan Kral won the 400 meter dash (47.38 seconds), Jacob Lewis finished out front in the 1500 meter run (3:51.19), Ethan Harris posted the top height in the high jump (2.10 meters), Evan Dudley was tops in the pole vault (4.81m), Jorden Okyere won the hammer throw (58.89m), Jesse Newman had the best javelin throw at 64.13m while Aidan Diggs won the decathlon with 6,848 points.

 

The Lopes also earned the top spot in seven of the 21 events on the women's side. The GCU women were led by outstanding field performer and high point award winner Niki Xydona. Xydona took home gold in the heptathlon with 5,018 points. Additionally, Alexa Hokanson won the 800 meter run (2:09.47), Elizabeth Balsan posted the top time in the 1500 meter run (4:28.65), Erika Wallace won the 10,000 meter run (36:47.80), Paige Hildebrandt took gold in the 3000 meter steeplechase (10:23.05), Alyson Schwartz finished atop the podium in the pole vault (4.06m) and Samaria McDonald won the hammer throw (56.59m).

 

Seven WAC teams will compete at the NCAA Championships West Preliminaries in College Station, Texas. Both the men's and women's teams from Grand Canyon, UT Rio Grande Valley and Utah Valley will head to The Lone Star State to battle for a spot in the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The NM State women's team will also be competing in Texas. The NCAA Championships West Preliminaries will take place on May 26-29.

 

This week's USTFCCCA national ratings, released on Monday, May 17, remained relatively status quo for WAC member schools, with no teams listed among the top 25. The UT Rio Grande Valley women dropped to the 67th spot in the national ratings this week, while the league's highest-rated men's squad, Grand Canyon, slid one spot to 62 in the national ratings. Utah Valley and GCU are the only men's team who cracked the top 15 with the Wolverines coming in at 12th in the Mountain Region and the Lopes coming in at 10th in the West Region. On the women's side, NM State is 11th in the Mountain Region.

 

A pair of WAC track and field athletes have qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which are set for June 18-27 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. UT Rio Grande Valley's Desirea Buerge comfortably passed the qualifying mark of 58.00m in the women's discus, posting a throw of 58.90m at the Roadrunner Invitational on April 15. Grand Canyon's Ethan Harris met the qualifying mark in the high jump at the Desert Heat Classic on May 1, clearing 2.26m.

 

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced its 2020 All-Academic Teams for the 2020 season and seven different WAC schools were honored.

 

Among those teams that received the award, both the men's and women's programs from California Baptist, Grand Canyon, Seattle U and Utah Valley were honored. The women's programs from NM State and UT Rio Grande Valley also earned recognition. In addition, WAC newcomer Tarleton was also honored at the Division II level with the Texans' men's team garnering the award.

For the second consecutive year, the CBU women's team claimed the highest grade-point average among WAC teams, posting a 3.726 cumulative GPA.

 

In total, 264 different women's programs and 199 different men's programs were honored across Division I.

 

Several individual student-athletes were also honored, earning All-Academic honors by holding a minimum 3.25 cumulative GPA and either finishing the season ranked in the top 96 nationally or in the top 48 in any championship relay event during the most recent indoor season.

 

The Grand Canyon, Tarleton and Utah Valley men's teams each had one honoree as Grant Carpenter represented the Lopes, Larry Still earned recognition for the Wolverines, and Colton Troutman was honored for the Texans.

 

On the women's side, GCU had three representatives while two members of the Tarleton State team were recognized. The Lopes' Madelyn Lundberg, Alyson Schwartz and Niki Xydona earned the honor while Jasmine McQuirter and Kylee Ponder represented Tarleton.

 

Across Division I, 452 men and 659 women received honors.