Five Record-Setters Among Conference Weekend National Athletes of the Week
NEW ORLEANS—Conference championships brought out the best in athletes across the nation, with five divisional records going down.
Michael Lihrman of Wisconsin (Division I men), Providence’s Emily Sisson (co-DI women), Remona Burchell of Alabama (co-DI women), Lehman’s Adriana Wright (DIII women) and Amherst’s men’s DMR (DIII men) all set new national standards for their respective events and divisions. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced the awards on Tuesday.
The other four winners? For Division II, Tiffin sprinter Lamar Hargrove won the men’s award, and New Mexico Highlands’ Swiss Army knife Salcia Slack won women’s honors. Steven Cooper of Central Arizona and Bethany Krasuski of Paradise Valley were the NJCAA winners.
That’s the third win this year for Lihrman and the second for Sisson and Wright, while Alabama, Tiffin and Amherst have never had an athlete win the award before.
Click each of the student-athletes’ names above or keep scrolling below to read about the exploits that made all eight worthy.
National Athlete of the Week is an award selected and presented by the USTFCCCA Communications Staff at the beginning of each week to eight (male and female for each of the three NCAA divisions, plus the NJCAA) collegiate track & field athletes.
Nominations are open to the public. Coaches and sports information directors are encouraged to nominate their student-athletes; as are student-athletes, their families and friends, and fans of their programs.
The award seeks to highlight not only the very best times, marks and scores on a week-to-week basis, but also performances that were significant on the national landscape and/or the latest in a series of strong outings. Quality of competition, suspenseful finishes and other factors will also play a role in the decision.
DIVISION I MEN – Michael Lihrman, Wisconsin
Senior | Rice Lake, Wisconsin
For the third time this year, Lihrman broke the Division I weight throw record and was honored as the National Athlete of the Week. This time, though, Lihrman got the overall collegiate record–previously held by NCAA DII Ashland’s Kibwe Johnson. Lihrman now has nine of the ten best throws ever by a collegian.
On his second throw of the day at the Big Ten Championships, Lihrman launched the weight 25.58m (83-11.25). In addition to the national record, that’s good for a conference championship, the third best throw in world history, and the second best in American history. He hasn’t lost in the weight throw since January 2014.
Honorable mention: Omar McLeod, Arkansas; Oregon DMR
CO-DIVISION I WOMEN – Emily Sisson, Providence
Senior | Chesterfield, Missouri
Nearly double-lapping the entire field in the BIG EAST championship 5k, Sisson broke Kim Smith’s collegiate and Providence record, running 15:12.22 solo with near dead-even splits. No one else in the field broke 16:20; only six other women broke seventeen minutes. Runners from Providence (Sisson and Smith) now have four of the six fastest indoor 5ks in NCAA history. With the performance, she moved to No. 3 all-time in U.S. indoor history.
With her ability to run so fast alone, Sisson may have her eye on the fastest 5000 ever run by a collegian indoors: Jenny (Barringer) Simpson’s 15:01 on an oversized track.
CO-DIVISION I WOMEN – Remona Burchell, Alabama
Senior | Montego Bay, Jamaica
Sisson wasn’t the only woman in Division I to break a collegiate record this weekend. Defending indoor 60-meter national champion Burchell took down the all-time standard in her signature event this weekend en route to a dominant SEC Championships win. Her 7.08 bettered by .01 of a second the previous record of 7.09 co-held by South Carolina’s Lakya Brookins (2011) and Southern California’s Angela Williams (2001).
In taking the win, she defeated 2014 indoor SEC champ Dezerea Bryant by a full tenth of a second. Dating back to her 7.11 last year at altutide to win the NCAA title, she now has two of the five fastest times in collegiate history.
Honorable mention: Leah O’Connor, Michigan State; Sandi Morris, Arkansas
DIVISION II MEN – Lamar Hargrove, Tiffin
Sophomore | Cincinnati, Ohio
Hargrove, the defending DII indoor 200 champ, notched a blowout win at the GLIAC championship meet. His 20.93 seconds–now the national leader–won his section by nearly a second, and was the fastest in the two-section final by a whopping 0.72 seconds. Hargrove had been a little slow to recapture his 2014 peak, not breaking 21.2 before this weekend. Now he has a new career indoor best.
Don’t be fooled by the national leaderboard’s conversions: no DII athlete has come within three-tenths of a second of Hargrove’s time in the 200 this winter. 20.93 is the fastest time in the NCAA outside of Division I this year.
He also took the GLIAC title at 60 meters – another event in which he is the defending national champion – in 6.70, good for the No. 2 spot on the national descending order list.
Speaking of the national descending order lists, Hargrove is No. 1 at 200 meters and No. 2 at 60; former National Athlete of the Week Emmanuel Matadi of Minnesota State is No. 1 at 60 meters and No. 2 at 200.
Honorable mention: Tanner McNutt, Pittsburg State
DIVISION II WOMEN – Salcia Slack, New Mexico Highlands
Senior | Kingston, Jamaica
Salcia Slack’s performance at the RMAC championships was so un-slacking that it doesn’t event fit into one page on her TFRRS profile. Between multis, prelims, relays, and finals, Slack competed fourteen times in two days. The junior Jamaican won conference titles in the pentathlon, hurdles, triple jump, and 400 and finished second in the long jump and shot put.
The sheer volume of those performances would be impressive even if they were sit-and-kick victories over far inferior competition. But she was competing at an extremely high level in a tough conference. Slack’s time in the hurdles was the second fastest in DII this year, her long jump was the fifth farthest in DII, and her triple jump the fourth best. Her pentathlon score from earlier in the season is still the national leader.
Honorable mention: Jamie Sindelar, Ashland
DIVISION III MEN – Amherst DMR
Romey Sklar Senior | Brookline, Massachusetts
David Ingraham Freshman | Rochester, New York
Brent Harrison Junior | Glen Cove, New York
Greg Turissini Senior | Maumee, Ohio
They only won the race by two-tenths of a second and only broke their school record by half a second. They’re also now the best distance medley relay in Division III history. Romey Sklar (1200), David Ingraham (400), Brent Harrison (800), and Greg Turissini (1600) are the second quartet of Lord Jeffs in the last five years to set a new national standard in the DMR; Amherst’s time from 2011 was the previously standing DIII record.
They did so at the NEICAAA (all-New England) championships at Boston University, beating out DI and DII powers Northeastern and Stonehill.
Honorable mention: Dominique Neloms, UW-La Crosse
DIVISION III WOMEN – Adriana Wright, Lehman
Sophomore | St. Elizabeth, Jamaica
This is Wright’s second NAOW award in 2015; while her first one was impressive, this one comes after one of the greatest single-meet performances in DIII history. Wright competed in five events at the CUNYAC championships, and broke national records in two of them.
In addition to running on the winning 4×4, taking fourth in the high jump, and winning the flat 60 meters, Wright ran the fastest 60 meter hurdles and 200 meters in Division III history. The sophomore was already the eighth best performer in DIII history in the hurdles; she slashed two-tenths of a second off of her old best to set a new national standard at 8.44 seconds. Wright’s NR in the 200 was a bigger shocker: in her only 200 of the year before Sunday, she ran a (relatively) pedestrian 25.45 seconds. Her 24.33 broke the old national record by eight-hundredths of a second.
Honorable mention: MIT DMR
NJCAA MEN – Steven Cooper, Central Arizona
Freshman | Las Vegas, Nevada
With most of the NJCAA resting for next week’s national championships, Cooper took full advantage and blazed a season-best 47.99 for 400 meters on his home track. That makes him the fifth best 400 performer in the NJCAA this winter, and the fastest who doesn’t run for South Plains or West Texas.
NJCAA WOMEN – Bethany Krasuski, Paradise Valley
Sophomore | Phoenix, Arizona
In her last chance before nationals, Krasuski vaulted 3.35m (10-11.75) to take second and finish as the first collegian at Central Arizona’s CAC Indoor Invitational. That’s a fifteen-centimeter personal best of Krasuski and ranks her No. 4 in the NJCAA this season. She set it in an oddly rhythmic fashion, alternating makes and misses for her first eight jumps of the day before bowing out at 3.50 meters.