2020-21 Great Midwest All-Conference Team (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – Four specialized awards to celebrate the conclusion of the 2020-21 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Indoor Track & Field season were announced on Thursday afternoon.
The top three place winners from each event at the Great Midwest Indoor Championships in Cedarville were presented with medals for all-conference honors on site.
Additionally, 17 of 19 national qualifiers from the conference on the women’s side earned Division II All-American status at the NCAA Championships in Birmingham, Ala.
All end-of-the-year awards were voted upon by the league coaches. They are also different from the ‘of the meet’ awards earned at Cedarville that go to the highest point earners from the championship event.
Women’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year
Kajsa Johansson - Hillsdale
Johansson blazed her way to a national title in the 200-meter dash (24.03) and shattered the previous conference record three consecutive times in the event.
Johansson had the top prelims time of 24.13 and was coming off a conference championship record time of 24.26 in the finals.
Johansson finally cracked a tough record that had held strong since 2017. She was also a national qualifier in the 60-meter dash and part of the NCAA runner-up 4x400 relay team.
Women’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Year
Jazilee Williams - Tiffin
Williams made her mark at nationals by earning All-American honors in both the multis (pentathlon) and the long jump.
Earlier this year, Williams tied former Ursuline All-American Janelle Perry for the fourth-longest completed attempt in the long jump at 5.85m and owns two of the top 10 distances in conference history.
She successfully repeated as conference multis champion with 3,655 points. Williams then went on to PR at nationals with 3,657 points, the third-highest total in conference history, only to Perry.
Women’s Indoor Freshman of the Year
Shura Ermakov – Hillsdale
Ermakov was part of the NCAA runner-up 4x400-meter relay team in her first year and also was designated conference freshman of the meet after scoring 11 points for the Chargers at Cedarville.
She was runner-up at the conference meet in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.62 and also made the finals of the 60-meter dash for a sixth-place finish.
Ermakov is an integral part of the top three conference times in the 4x400 relay, including the overall record of 3:47.45 at the NCAA Championships.
Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year
Andrew Towne - Hillsdale
Towne coached the Chargers to back-to-back conference titles with 188 points and earned coach of the year honors from his peers for the second year in a row.
He coached five different individuals to All-American honors at nationals in Alabama and celebrated a national title with Johansson in the 200-meter dash.
Towne also had six different women’s individuals earn first team all-conference honors from their performances at Cedarville.