TicketsCINCINNATI - For just the second time in program history, a member of the University of Cincinnati track and field program has been selected for a regional award in a vote of the coaches as Annette Echikunwoke today has been named the 2018 USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Female Field Athlete of the Year. Echikunwoke, the defending national champion and top-ranked thrower in the weight throw this year, joins Jasmine Cotten (2012) as the only Bearcats to have been selected for the honor since its inception in 2006.
Echikunwoke, who is set to throw in her third-consecutive NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships this Saturday, has put together another outstanding season as she leads the NCAA with a best of 24.78m (81-03.75) in the weight throw for the top mark in the nation and the best throw since the 2008 season. Her mark stands as the record in UC history, the American Athletic Conference and ranks her #2 all-time with the #4 performance all-time. Recently, she swept both throws at the AAC Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala., as she captured her third-consecutive weight throw crown before adding a win in the shot put with a meet-record toss to accumulate 20 team points for the Bearcats on their way to their first AAC indoor crown.
Following the meet, Echikunwoke was added to The Bowerman Watch List, a list that recognizes some of the top individual performers in the nation that will be utilized later this year to select the winner of the collegiate athlete of the year. She is the first member of the Bearcats program (men and women) to be added to the watch list since The Bowerman's inception in 2009.
With her selection to the USTFCCCA regional award, Echikunwoke is now on the ballot for the national athlete of the year honors that will be announced after this week's NCAA Championships where Echikunwoke will join Loretta Blaut (high jump) and men's athletes Adrian Valles (pole vault) and Alex Bloom (heptathlon) in College Station, Texas, as each will compete for a national title and USTFCCCA All-America honors. While Bloom will compete both Friday and Saturday (March 9-10), Blaut and Valles will take the stage Friday and Echikunwoke will look to defend her title Saturday.
Echikunwoke, who is set to throw in her third-consecutive NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships this Saturday, has put together another outstanding season as she leads the NCAA with a best of 24.78m (81-03.75) in the weight throw for the top mark in the nation and the best throw since the 2008 season. Her mark stands as the record in UC history, the American Athletic Conference and ranks her #2 all-time with the #4 performance all-time. Recently, she swept both throws at the AAC Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala., as she captured her third-consecutive weight throw crown before adding a win in the shot put with a meet-record toss to accumulate 20 team points for the Bearcats on their way to their first AAC indoor crown.
Following the meet, Echikunwoke was added to The Bowerman Watch List, a list that recognizes some of the top individual performers in the nation that will be utilized later this year to select the winner of the collegiate athlete of the year. She is the first member of the Bearcats program (men and women) to be added to the watch list since The Bowerman's inception in 2009.
With her selection to the USTFCCCA regional award, Echikunwoke is now on the ballot for the national athlete of the year honors that will be announced after this week's NCAA Championships where Echikunwoke will join Loretta Blaut (high jump) and men's athletes Adrian Valles (pole vault) and Alex Bloom (heptathlon) in College Station, Texas, as each will compete for a national title and USTFCCCA All-America honors. While Bloom will compete both Friday and Saturday (March 9-10), Blaut and Valles will take the stage Friday and Echikunwoke will look to defend her title Saturday.