CINCINNATI - Three members of the University of Cincinnati track & field program have been named 2020 USTFCCCA All-Americans for the 2020 indoor season, it was announced today. Earning accolades for the indoor season were men's competitors Damien Berthenet in the heptathlon and Chris Borzor in the 200m while Caisja Chandler was honored in the women's 200m.
All three Bearcats qualified to the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., in March, but the competition was canceled the before its scheduled start because of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Normally, to earn USTFCCCA All-America accolades, student-athletes would need to place in the Top 8 for first-team accolades or ninth-16th for second-team honors at the NCAA meet. Because of the unusual circumstances brought on by the novel coronavirus, the NCAA Division I Track & Field Executive Committee, with support of the USTFCCCA Board of Directors, has directed the national office to reconfigure the USTFCCCA All-America program for the 2020 indoor track & field season.
According to the USTFCCCA, the Executive Committee awarded All-America honors to individuals and relay team members based upon the post-medical scratches start list for the national championships that were posted on Wednesday, March 11 at 9:24 p.m., local. From that list, the following will be recognized as All-America for the 2020 indoor track & field season:
- Individual events: ALL student-athletes listed on the start list for the anticipated event.
- Relay events: The four student-athletes per anticipated relay who produced the performance that was declared and accepted into their event. Those listed as alternates will not be recognized.
- Additionally, there will not be a distinction of "first-team", "second-team", or "honorable mention" to these recognitions.
// FIRST AWARDS
All three Bearcats secured their first USTFCCCA All-America honors with the announcement made Tuesday after each qualified for their first career appearances in the national meet.
// AWARD HISTORY
COMBINED
With three Bearcats earning All-America accolades for the 2020 indoor season, it marked the fourth time in program history that three or more individuals secured All-America honors during the indoor seaons and the first since the 2018 meet. At those championships, both Loretta Blaut (high jump) and Annette Echikunwoke (weight throw) finished as national runners-up to earn USTFCCCA All-America First Team while the men saw Adrian Valles (tie-fifth) and Alex Bloom (12th) earn first-team (pole vault) and second-team (heptathlon) honors, respectively.
MEN
With their selections, Berthenet and Borzor gave UC indoor All-Americans for the ffith time in six years. Additionally, their selections marked just the second time in program history two individual men earned All-America honors at the indoor championships after Valles and Bloom did so in 2018 while marking the third time in program history multiple awards were earned after Al Lanier finished second in the triple jump and third in the long jump at the 1972 meet. Borzor became the second UC man to earn All-America honors in an indoor track event following Terrence Somerville, who was 14th in the 60m hurdles in 2012 while Berthenet joins Bloom as the only heptathlon All-Americans in program history. Combined, Berthenet and Borzor are the fifth and sixth different Bearcats men to be recognized as indoor All-Americans, securing the 10th and 11th honors, respectively.
WOMEN
Chandler's honor in the 200m marked the sixth year in a row the Bearcats women have earned at least one indoor All-America accolade, a streak that was begun in 2015. Chandler also is just the second UC woman to earn All-America honors on the track indoors after Kathy Klump earned first-team accolades in the 800m run in 2012. Overall, Chandler is the eighth different UC woman to earn USTFCCCA All-America accolades while securing the 13th individual award.
// FLYING FRENCHMAN
Berthenet was to compete in his first NCAA event after he scored a PR 5,693 points to win the title at the American Athletic Conference Championships and post the #10 mark of the year nationally, which also earned him earlier the AAC Male Most Outstanding Performance Award. Berthenet, who also broke the school record in the event as well as the heptathlon shot put mark while posting two other marks that ranked #2 all-time at UC, was to become the second UC man to compete in the heptathlon at the NCAA Indoor Championships after Alex Bloom was the first in 2018. Bloom, the previous record holder before Berthenet's big meet in Birmingham, finished 12th at the 2018 meet to earn USTFCCCA All-America Second Team honors as well. Berthenet would have been the 15th different man to compete for UC at the indoor national championships all-time.
// CHANDLER CRUISING
Chandler was to make her NCAA debut as well and would have become just the ninth woman in UC history to compete indoors while becoming just the second runner ever. The AAC runner-up in both the 60m and 200m, Chandler broke the school records in both events with bests of 7.30 and 23.22, the later coming at the AAC meet. Chandler's selection was the second on the track for UC behind Kathy Klump, who was fourth in the nation in the 200m run at the 2012 meet. Chandler also continued a run of selections for the Bearcats as at least one woman has qualified to the national indoor meet for the sixth year in a row. Her time of 23.22 ranked her 13th heading into the meet.
// BORZOR BLAZING
The 16th man to represent UC at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Borzor was coming off a huge weekend in which he won the 200m in school-record time of 20.84 while taking second in the 400m in another PR of 47.43. Borzor, who's performances earned him the 2020 AAC Male Most Valuable Performer award following the meet, was set to become the first UC man to race the 200m indoors at the NCAA meet and the second overall behind Kenny Wade, who raced at the 2004 outdoor meet. While not the first sprinter to compete at the indoor meet, he was to be the first to do so in quite a while as the last was Jim Schnur, who competed in the 440y dash in 1978.
Three Bearcats Earn USTFCCCA All-America Accolades
Three members of the University of Cincinnati track & field program have been named 2020 USTFCCCA All-Americans for the 2020 indoor season, it was announced today.
