First National Athletes of the Week for 2015-16 Indoor Season

NEW ORLEANS – Welcome back, indoor track & field. We missed you.

This past weekend marked the first full weekend of indoor track & field across the nation in all divisions.

With that, come the first batch of National Athletes of the Week, which were announced Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). They are Minnesota’s Luca Wieland (Division I Men), Kansas’ Zainab Sanni (Division I Women), Pittsburg State’s Garrett Appier (Division II Men), Winona State’s Kaitlyn Long (Division II Women), Mount Union’s Tyler Orewiler (Division III Men) and Stevens’ Amy Regan (Division III Women).

Find out more about each of these runners by clicking their names or scrolling below.

National Athlete of the Week is an award selected and presented by the USTFCCCA Communications Staff at the beginning of each week to six collegiate indoor track & field athletes (male and female for each of the three NCAA divisions).

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 – Luca Wieland, Minnesota

Junior | Saarbrucken, Germany
Combined Events

Wieland finished last indoor season atop the NCAA in the heptathlon, and that’s exactly where he begins this year. The defending national champion junior posted a nation-best score of 5789 points at St. Scholastica’s “The Opener”, winning six of the seven events along the way – including a personal-best 7.00 at 60 meters. Though it’s only December, he appears to already be in midseason form: the score is two points better than his Big Ten-winning 5787 a year ago.

DIVISION I WOMEN – Zainab Sanni, Kansas

Junior | Aurora, Colorado
Sprints

Any weekend that ends with an athlete taking the national lead in an event is a good weekend. Sanni had a doubly good weekend as she posted the nation’s fastest times at both 60 and 200 meters with her performances at the Bob Timmons Challenge. She won the 60 in a career-best 7.41 – besting her previous-best 7.48 from last year’s Big 12 Championships – and claimed the 200 in 24.18.

DIVISION II MEN – Garrett Appier, Pittsburg State

Senior | Paola, Kansas
Throws

There’s strong season-debut performances, and then there’s what Appier did at his home Crimson & Gold Invitational. Already the defending NCAA Division II Outdoor shot put champion, Appier heaved the implement a nation-best 64-1¾ (19.55m) on his final attempt to topple his career PR from last outdoor season by a full meter and his previous indoor PR by nearly two meters. He also notched a career-best 54-7¼ (16.64m) in the weight throw.

DIVISION II WOMEN – Kaitlyn Long, Winona State

Sophomore | Cottage Grove, Wisconsin
Throws

En route to winning the 2014 NCAA DII Indoor weight throw national title as a frosh, Long didn’t break the 20-meter barrier until late February. She’s already checked that off her list this year as she heaved a nation-leading 67-6 (20.57m) among three 20m+ efforts at the Minnesota State Chuck Peterson Open. The mark is less than 30cm shy of her NCAA winning performance from a year ago. She also set a PR in the shot put with a mark of 42-¾ (12.82m).

DIVISION III MEN – Tyler Orewiler, Mount Union

Senior | Bucyrus, Ohio
Pole Vault

Here’s a stat to put Orewiler’s new career-best 16-10 (5.13m) vault at the Mount Union Indoor Opener into perspective: He’s now closer to the all-time DIII indoor top-10 list (18cm) than he is to his old PR of 16-¾ (4.90m). After surviving an early three-attempt effort at 4.80m, Orewiler – who leads all DIII vaulters by 11 inches and is tied for fourth in the nation among all Divisions – cleared a new PR 4.92 on his first effort and did so again at 5.00m. He took two attempts to clear his final winning height.

DIVISION III WOMEN – Amy Regan, Stevens

Senior | Green Brook, New Jersey
Distance

The 2014 national cross country champion may have sat out the 2015 outdoor track & XC campaigns because of academic commitments relating to her pursuit of a master’s degree, but she’s back in full force this indoor season. She covered 5000 meters at the Metro Holiday Season Opener in a career-best 16:37.56 for the fourth-fastest time in DIII indoor history. She won the race by more than a minute.