Full USTFCCCA List
INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Midwest Athletic Conference, one of Division II’s top-tier leagues in the sport, had a total of 31 student-athletes recognized as NCAA Indoor All-Americans by the United State Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) this week.
The NCAA Championships were scheduled to be held in Birmingham, Ala., on March 13-14, but were cancelled due to COVID-19 along with wrestling and the remainder of swimming and diving.
A total of 716 honors were handed out by the USTFCCCA to 117 different Division II member institutions.
Due to the unforeseen circumstances that ended the indoor season prematurely, the USTFCCCA recognized all individual and relay participants that were on the start list for their respective event.
In addition, the USTFCCCA did not attach first team or second team to any of the recognitions with the events not concluded. As a result, all NCAA indoor qualifiers earned USTFCCCA All-American status.
Tiffin’s senior sprinter Jonte Baker was looking forward to defending his national title in the 60-meter dash while several student-athletes were set to compete in multiple events.
Findlay’s Sterling Mungro had qualified for the shot put and weight throw and Tiffin’s Cameron Burrows was entered in the heptathlon, high jump and long jump.
There were a total of 15 NCAA All-Americans on the men’s side and Tiffin led the all Great Midwest schools with nine qualifiers
The women had 16 student-athletes set to perform at indoor nationals, including three returning 2019 NCAA All-Americans, Andra Lehotay (Walsh), Marisa Gwinner (Tiffin) and Alexa Leppelmeier (Walsh).
Gwinner was the reigning outdoor national champ and was the favorite headed into Birmingham having cleared 1.80m.
Lehotay, recently named the Great Midwest Female Collegiate Achievement Award winner for 2019-20, was ready to compete in the 800-meter run and as a member of the distance medley relay unit.
Tiffin’s Rajiah Andrews put her name in the conference record books multiple times this year and had qualified for nationals in both the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles.
The Dragons also had the most women’s NCAA qualifiers with seven and conference indoor team champion Hillsdale traveled with two qualifiers, Kajsa Johansson in the 200-meter dash and Nikita Maines in shot put.
Ashland University, recently announcing declaration to join the Great Midwest in 2021-22, had 11 total NCAA Indoor All-Americans with six men and five women.