INDIANAPOLIS – Cedarville junior Carsyn Koch and Malone freshman Olga Branney were both named Great Midwest Athletic Conference Indoor Women’s Track and Field Athletes of the Week on Monday.
 
This is Branney’s second consecutive selection for field athlete of the week honors while this represents Koch’s sixth career indoor track athlete of the week nod since 2014.
 
Cedarville and Malone both competed at the Youngstown State Invitational on Friday.
 
Koch recorded a provisional-qualifying time in the mile at 4:53.81. She won the event with 49 total entrants and officially logged the sixth-fastest mile in NCAA Division II of the current season.
 
Only 15 total participants have recorded provisional-qualifying times of at least 5:01.11 in the mile. The auto mark is 4:47.13.
 
Koch is the reigning indoor/outdoor NCAA DII champion in the 800-meter run. This marked her first track and field competition for Cedarville since competing at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials over the summer and winning nationals to finish her sophomore season.
 
Branney continued to literally raise the bar for herself by breaking her own high jump record at the same meet.
 
She provisionally qualified for nationals with a cleared attempt of 1.65 meters (5’5”) and won first place in the event. Branney’s previous-best was a leap of 1.63 meters in her collegiate debut at the Northwest Ohio Invitational.