3 Share CCC Male Track Athlete of Year Honors
PORTLAND, Ore. – Three athletes who earned All-America honors this past season have been voted co-recipients of the 2008 Cascade Collegiate Conference Male Track and Field Athlete of the Year award, the league office announced Monday.
Sharing the honors are distance runner Tyler Hopper of College of Idaho, thrower Nik Kay of Concordia and decathlete Lucas Ohmes of Eastern Oregon.
Hopper, a senior from Caldwell, Idaho, earned All-American honors indoors (1,000 meters) and outdoors (1,500 meters). Winner of 11 races this past season, he qualified for the nationals in five events (two indoors, three outdoors) in addition to setting a meet record in the 1,500 on his way to scoring 24 points at the league’s outdoor meet.
Kay, a junior from Los Gatos, Calif., who was ranked second in the NAIA ranks in the discus going into the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, registered a PR of 190-7 in winning the event by more than 13 feet. His mark of 190-7 is an all-time Oregon small college best. Kay also finished seventh nationally in the hammer with a four-foot PR of 182-4. At the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships, Kay was named the Male Field Athlete of the Meet after recording second-place finishes in the discus, shot and hammer.
Ohmes, a junior from Portland, Ore., finished second in the decathlon at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, winning three events (pole vault, shot, discus) and finishing second in two others (100 meters, 110 high hurdles). At the CCC Championships, he was first in the 110 high hurdles, third in the pole vault, sixth in the 100, ninth in the javelin and 10th in the long jump. He also ran on EOU’s winning 4x100 relay team.