NEW ORLEANS, La. --- Senior pole vaulter Abby Schaffer of the Moravian College outdoor track & field team has been named the 2012 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III Mideast Region Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year while senior javelin thrower Gary Zack has earned Male Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year honors and javelin coach Bob Luciano earned Male Assistant Coach of the Year accolades announced late Friday.
The trio will be honored at the championship banquet Wednesday evening in Claremont, California as they prepare to compete and coach in the 2012 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, Thursday through Saturday, May 24th to 26th.
Schaffer, who was also the 2011 USTFCCCA Division III Indoor National Field Athlete of the Year and the 2011 Mideast Region Indoor and Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year, enters the NCAA Championships as the top seed in the pole vault, having earned her season's best and NCAA Division III all-time record of 13-10 (4.22 meters) in the Greyhound Invitational on April 21st. Schaffer has won four Landmark Conference titles and two ECAC titles in the pole vault in her two years at Moravian, and she has vaulted over four meters in six meets, four of them outdoors during the 2012 season. Schaffer captured the 2011 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships with NCAA meet records each time, and she was the runner-up in the 2012 NCAA Indoor meet. She will compete in the outdoor competition on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EDT.
Zack, who was the 2011 NCAA Division III National Champion in the javelin, has the top throw in the country this season with a school record toss of 69.05 meters (226 feet, six inches). The distance is the eighth best throw in NCAA Division III history and is just three feet shy of the 2012 Olympic provisional qualifying standard which is 70 meters. Zack has surpassed 60 meters in eight of nine meets this season with the only meet under 60 meters coming on his only attempt at the 2012 Landmark Conference Championships to finish as the runner-up just 27 hours after throwing in the Penn Relays College Championship flight. On the throw, Zack took just a seven-step run up and still threw 59.74 meters (196 feet). Zack will look to defend his title in the javelin on Saturday at 3:40 p.m. EDT.
Luciano currently has Greyhound student-athletes ranked first, 15th and 21st in the event, including Zack, who is eighth on the All Time Division III javelin list. The top 20 will compete in the NCAA meet. Moravian recently won its fifth consecutive Landmark Conference Championships.
To view all of the USTFCCCA Regional Athletes of the Year, visit http://www.ustfccca.org/2012/05/featured/diii-region-award-winners-announced-for-outdoor-track-field.
