2015 NCAA Division II Athletes of the Year Announced
NEW ORLEANS – Following the 2015 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships this past weekend in Birmingham, Alabama, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced Thursday the 2015 class of NCAA Division II National Athletes of the Year, as voted on by the coaches.
Kevin Batt of Adams State and Emily Oren of Hillsdale were named the Men’s and Women’s Track Athletes of the Year, respectively, while Justin Welch of Findlay and Erika Kinsey of Central Missouri earned the Men’s and Women’s Field Athlete of the Year Awards.
Batt, a senior from Sydney, Australia, completed his historic indoor career at Adams State with a pair of NCAA Division II titles this past weekend – and did it in dramatic, meet-record fashion.
Friday night in the distance medley relay, Batt received the baton more than four seconds back of leader CSU-Pueblo, but caught RMAC rival Derrick Williams with 400 meters left to go in his 1600-meter anchor leg. From there it was a race to the finish, with Batt outleaning Williams at the line for the win by just .03 of a second. Thanks to Batt’s approximately four-minute 1600-meter leg, the Grizzlies finished in 9:41.79 to topple the meet record by nearly four seconds.
He came back Saturday to win another duel with Williams, this time at 3000 meters. Reclaiming his title from two years ago after a photo-finish runner-up effort last year, Batt ran 8:01.42 to win by nearly two seconds over Williams. With the performance, he surpassed his own meet record from two years ago by nearly six full seconds.
During the regular season he won three titles at the RMAC Championships – mile, 3000 and distance medley relay – and posted the No. 1 time in the country at 3000 meters and the No. 3 mile on the qualifying list (after track & altitude conversions). His 7:51.87 over 3000 meters at the Husky Classic was the 11th-fastest among all collegians this season and was a full 12 seconds faster than any other DII athlete ran this season.
Another historically fast distance runner took the Women’s Track Athlete of the Year Award in Hillsdale’s Oren, a sophomore from Holland, Michigan. She took down the meet record at 3000 meters by nearly 14 seconds in a 9:16.81 victory, winning by nearly four seconds over teammate Kristina Galat and by 10 seconds over Jennifer Johnson of Simon Fraser. She was just over two seconds off the facility record set by former Division I standout Elinor Kirk of UAB, and her time is one of the fastest in Division II Indoor history.
She ran that 3000 the night after anchoring Hillsdale to an 11:25.61 in the distance medley relay to win the title by nearly three full seconds over Simon Fraser.
During the season, Oren won the GLIAC title in the mile, and ran a blistering 3000 in 9:28.11 the weekend after the NCAA Cross Country Championships in December. She finished the regular season No. 3 on the qualifying list in the mile at 4:45.21.
Taking the Men’s Field Athlete of the Year was Welch, a senior from Luckey, Ohio. For the second year in a row he won the NCAA Division II title in the weight throw, this time with a heave of 72-5 (22.07m). He made that mark count, as it was his only legal attempt of the weekend. He defeated runner-up Darien Thornton of Grand Valley State by more than two feet.
He also took eighth-place in the shot put with a throw of 55-5½ (16.90m).
Throughout the regular season he reached as far as 72-8 (22.15m) in the weight throw and a career-best 55-9¾ (17.01m) in the shot put to finish eighth in the GLIAC. He won the GLIAC weight throw title by 11 centimeters over Ashland’s Jared Conklin at 21.99m. He finished the season ranked 10th among all collegians in the weight throw.
The lynchpin of the Central Missouri women’s first-ever team title was dual national champion Kinsey, a first-year collegian from Nalden, Sweden. In just her first year competing for UCM, Kinsey won both the high jump and the triple jump at NCAAs and was fourth in the long jump – contributing 25 of UCM’s winning 47 team points.
She cleared 6-2¾ (1.90m) to win the high jump, tied for the second best on Championships weekend with NCAA Division I runner-up Claudia Garcia Jou of Akron, to win by 14 centimeters over Findlay’s Lydia Guagenti. Her winning triple jump leap of 42-5¼ (12.93m) was a season-best and 13 centimeters better than Angelo State’s Kearah Danville, a former NCAA DII Champion in this event.
She took fourth in the long jump at 19-10¼ (6.05m).
During the regular season she swept the long, triple and high jump titles at the MIAA Championships, and posted another high jump height of 1.90m to win the UCM Mule Relays.