M-F Athletic National Athletes of the Week (May 2)
NEW ORLEANS — Keep feeding us all-time marks.
Here are the M-F Athletic National Athletes of the Week for May 2.
- NCAA Division I Men – Mykolas Alekna, California
- NCAA Division I Women – Ackera Nugent, Arkansas
- NCAA Division II Men – Robin Black, Academy of Art
- NCAA Division II Women – Lindsay Cunningham, Winona State
- NCAA Division III Men – Loras Relay Teams
- NCAA Division III Women – Fiona Smith, Saint Benedict
- NAIA Men – Payton Mauldin, Dordt (Iowa)
- NAIA Women – Addy Wiley, Huntington (Ind.)
- NJCAA DI Men – James Dadzie, Western Texas
- NJCAA DI Women – Success Umukoro, South Plains (Texas)
- NJCAA DIII Men – Bradley Ahrens, Mineral Area (Mo.)
- NJCAA DIII Women – Lilly Alberts, Harper (Ill.)
Find out more about each of these athletes by 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 14 collegiate cross country athletes, when applicable (male and female for each of the three NCAA divisions, the NAIA 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 I MEN – Mykolas Alekna, California
Sophomore | Throws | Vilnius, Lithuania
63.29m (207-7). Good.
67.25m (220-7). Better.
71.00m (232-11). Best.
Mykolas Alekna bettered his own collegiate record in the discus throw this past weekend at the 128th edition of “The Big Meet” – a dual between California and Stanford – adding more than two meters (seven feet) with a third-round effort of 71.00m (232-11). That smashed his previous CR of 68.73m (225-6) from last year’s Pac-12 Championships and trumped his all-dates collegiate best of 69.81m (229-1) from last summer at the Stockholm Diamond League Meeting.
Alekna now has eight of the top-10 marks in collegiate history, including five from this season alone: No. 1 (71.00m/232-11), No. 3 (68.39m/224-5), No. 4 (68.35m/224-3), No. 5 (67.88m/222-9) and No. 9 (67.25m/220-8). His top-ranked and eighth-ranked marks came from his field series this past weekend in Berkely, California.
This is the second time this season that Alekna has been named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week. He previously earned honors on April 11 after another historic series.
NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN – Ackera Nugent, Arkansas
Junior | Sprints/Hurdles | Kingston, Jamaica
NCAA hurdling champions faced each other this past weekend at the LSU Invitational.
Indoor champion Ackera Nugent of Arkansas squared off against reigning outdoor champion Alia Armstrong of LSU in the 100-meter hurdles in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Armstrong and Nugent are also two of the fastest women in collegiate history both indoors and outdoors.
The duo skimmed the hurdles in a dramatic race that saw Nugent beat Armstrong by 0.04 seconds: 12.52 to 12.56. While both were seasonal bests, Nugent moved up to No. 3 on the 2023 world chart with the 13th-fastest performance in collegiate history.
We can’t wait to see what happens at the SEC Outdoor Championships next month!
This is the second time this season that a female athlete from Arkansas has been named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week. Britton Wilson previously earned a national honor on April 18 following her dynamic performances at the Tom Jones Memorial.
NCAA DIVISION II MEN – Robin Black, Academy of Art
Junior | Sprints/Hurdles | Clarendon, Jamaica
Robin Black stockpiled points and meet records this past weekend at the PacWest Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Azusa, California.
Black, a junior at Academy of Art, was named the PacWest Most Outstanding Men’s Track Athlete of the Meet after scoring 28.5 points and breaking two meet records. Twenty of those points came from individual titles in the 100 meters and 400-meter hurdles, where he broke longstanding meet records with his 10.30 (+1.1) and 50.72 efforts. He added another conference title as part of the 4×100 relay and finished top-8 in both the 110-meter hurdles and 200.
Those record-setting marks rocketed Black up the NCAA DII Descending Order List. Black is now ranked third nationally in the 400H and sixth nationally in the 100.
This is the first time since 2021 that a male athlete from Academy of Art has been named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season (James Young on April 20).
NCAA DIVISION II WOMEN – Lindsay Cunningham, Winona State
Junior | Distance | Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Lindsay Cunningham is rolling along this outdoor season.
Cunningham notched her second NCAA DII-leading mark in as many tries with her 15:45.91 5000-meter effort this past weekend at the Drake Relays. That sent her to the national lead by nearly 12 seconds and cemented her as the No. 8 performer in NCAA DII history. Cunningham was also the top collegiate finisher in the race that featured athletes from three divisions.
Two weeks earlier, Cunningham cracked the NCAA DII all-time top-5 in the 10,000 meters when she ran 32:43.64 at the Mt. SAC Relays.
This is the first time in program history that an athlete from Winona State has been named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season.
NCAA DIVISION III MEN – Loras Relays
Two relays. Two records.
Loras athletes made history twice this past weekend at the Drake Relays when they shattered NCAA DIII records in both the 4×800 and distance medley relay on the legendary blue oval.
Wyatt Kelly, Ryan Harvey, Carter Oberfoell and Mike Jasa got the party started on Thursday when they got the baton around in a blazing 7:22.17. Kelly staked Loras to three-second lead before the first exchange and the remaining trio extended that advantage to 15 seconds by the end of Jasa’s anchor leg. The Duhawks took more than six seconds off their own NCAA DIII record in the event and broke a 49-year-old Drake Relays college division record.
Kelly, Oberfoell and Harvey – three quarters of that 4×800 squad – later teamed up with Matt Marcum to win a historic DMR. The Loras quartet was challenged by conference rival Wartburg, but the Duhawks crossed the finish line first in an NCAA DIII-record 9:45.73. Wartburg wasn’t too far behind in 9:49.59 as both quartets dipped under the previous NCAA DIII all-time best.
This is the first time in award history that an NCAA DIII relay team has been named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week.
NCAA DIVISION III WOMEN – Fiona Smith, Saint Benedict
Junior | Distance | Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Fiona Smith loves making history.
Smith, competing at the Drake Relays this past weekend, improved her PR in the 5000 meters to 16:05.43, which has her ranked fourth in NCAA DIII history behind Kassie Parker, Missy Buttry (now Rock) and Ella Baran. The Saint Benedict standout must like racing at the Drake Relays, because that’s where she previously set her PR of 16:16.54 last year.
Two weeks earlier, Smith set a massive PR in the 10,000 meters of 33:23.89 at the Mt. SAC Relays. That performance vaulted Smith to No. 3 on the NCAA DIII all-time chart.
This is the first time in program history that an athlete from Saint Benedict has been named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season.
NAIA MEN – Payton Mauldin, Dordt (Iowa)
Junior | Mid-Distance | George, Iowa
Payton Mauldin was nearly everywhere at the Drake Relays.
On Thursday, Mauldin was top collegian in the 800 meters, taking over the NAIA national lead with a school record 1:49.07, which also made him No. 4 in NAIA history. A day later he anchored the Dordt sprint medley relay team with a 1:50.08 split to a third-place finish in 3:22.97, an all-time NAIA best. Finally, on Saturday he anchored the Defenders’ 4×400 team with a 47.32 split to a fourth-place finish in 3:14.84, third-fastest NAIA program of the year.
Mauldin is the first male athlete from Dordt to be name M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season.
NAIA WOMEN – Addy Wiley, Huntington (Ind.)
Freshman | Mid-Distance/Distance | Huntington, Indiana
Outdoors is looking very much like indoors for Addy Wiley.
Wiley – who won four individual events at the NAIA Indoor Championships – made her outdoor season debut a memorable one at the Drake Relays, finishing third in the 1500 meters in 4:12.53 in the fastest-known time ever by an NAIA athlete. That performance came after finishing third earlier in the week as an unattached runner in 4:31 in the USATF Road Mile Championships.
Wiley is the first female athlete from Huntington to be name M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season.
NJCAA DIVISION I MEN – James Dadzie, Western Texas
Freshman | Sprints | Ghana
James Dadzie couldn’t stop running fast this weekend.
His amazing run of fast races started on Thursday at Abilene Christian’s Oliver Jackson Twilight, where he won the 100 meters in a PR 10.07 to move to No. 8 in NJCAA history. Two days later he was second in the Corky/Crofoot Shootout at Texas Tech, running a wind-aided 9.89 (+3.2 m/s) that made him the fastest NJCAA sprinter of all time under all conditions.
The wind settled down enough (+1.3 m/s) for Dadzie’s final race of the weekend as he won the 200 in an NJCAA record time of 19.79, breaking the 19.82 set in 2019 by Kenny Bednarek of Indian Hills (Iowa) CC.
Dadzie is the fourth male athlete from Texas Western to be named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season.
NJCAA DIVISION I WOMEN – Success Umukoro, South Plains (Texas)
Sophomore | Sprints | Nigeria
Sprinting for Success Umukoro has yielded results much like her first name.
That was especially true at Texas Tech’s Corky/Crofoot Shootout, in which she blazed a time of 11.29 in the 100 meters to become the tenth-fastest NJCAA sprinter all-time. Finishing third (second collegian) in the race, Umukoro continued her streak this spring of remaining undefeated against JUCO competition in the 100.
Early in the day, Umukoro led off the Lady Texans’ victorious 4×100 which clocked an NJCAA-leading time of 44.70.
Umukoro is the fourth female athlete from South Plains to be named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season.
NJCAA DIVISION III MEN – Bradley Ahrens, Mineral Area (Mo.)
Freshman | Distance | Imperial, Missouri
It’s hard to tell which event is Bradley Ahrens’ best.
The NJCAA Division III leader was at or near his fastest in the 800 and 1500 meters Saturday at the Sycamore Open. After a sixth-place finish in the 800 at 1:55.81 – second-fastest only to his 1:55.52 earlier this year – Ahrens lowered his PR in the 1500 to 3:56.60 in taking runner-up honors.
He leads the NJCAA DIII list by 2.34 seconds in the 800 and 8.05 seconds in the 1500. Both of his nation-leading times are faster than the winning marks from last year’s NJCAA Division III Championships.
Ahrens is the third male athlete from Mineral Area to be named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season.
NJCAA DIVISION III WOMEN – Lilly Alberts, Harper (Ill.)
Freshman | Sprints/Mid-Distance | Richmond, Illinois
Lilly Alberts just keeps getting faster.
Alberts lowered her 800-meter PR – and NJCAA Division III-leading time – by 6.75 seconds in winning the Elmhurst Twilight in 2:12.42 as she continued her outdoor undefeated streak in the event.
Alberts’ name is also at the top of the NJCAA DIII 400 list at 57.47 as well as the anchor on Harper’s list-leading 4×100 (50.49) and 4×400 (4:02.92) from earlier efforts this spring.
Alberts is the second female athlete from Harper to be named M-F Athletic National Athlete of the Week during the outdoor season.