NCAA DIII OTF National Athletes of the Week (May 24)

NEW ORLEANS – And that closes the book on another chapter.

Here are our final National Athletes of the Week for the 2022 outdoor season.

Scroll below to find out those recipients.

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

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. Nominated athletes are noticed before those athletes found through searching TFRRS.

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.

NCAA DIVISION III MEN – Kyle Rollins, St. John Fisher

Senior | Jumps
Groveland, New York

Kyle Rollins continued his dominance of the AARTFC Track & Field Championships.

Since 2019, Rollins hadn’t lost in either the high jump or triple jump in either installment of the meet, which held its annual outdoor edition this past week. Even when Rollins didn’t capture the top spot on the podium, he finished right next to it, taking runner-up honors in every other year.

Well, Rollins went out with a bang at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Rollins doubled up on titles, taking the triple jump in an NCAA DIII-leading 15.11m (49-7) and clearing 2.05m (6-8¾) to win the high jump. That mark in the triple jump was a personal best.

Now, Rollins enters the upcoming NCAA DIII Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a pair of national-leading marks: he topped 2.12m (6-11½) in the high jump back on April 22 for what seems like a customary position on that chart; then, you already read about his most recent feat.

This is the third time in the past two years that Rollins has been named National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season. Rollins previously earned honors on March 23 and April 27 of last year.

NCAA DIVISION III WOMEN – Madison Mulder, SUNY Geneseo

Senior | Sprints
Smithtown, New York

Madison Mulder, we meet again.

Mulder turned up the heat at the AARTFC Outdoor Track & Field Championships last week, taking back the national lead in the 400 meters and giving SUNY Geneseo a pair of scintillating carries on title-winning relays, including an anchor on the now NCAA DIII-leading 4×400 relay.

Let’s take a deeper look at those 400s, where Mulder went 54.57 in the open version to demolish a six-year-old meet record by nearly one full second and only needed 53.81 seconds to traverse the same distance in the 4×400 relay to send the Knights to a meet record in that event. Mulder was actually part of that previous relay record, set last year when she carried the baton third.

This is the second time this season that Mulder has been named National Athlete of the Week.