FARMINGTON, Utah (March 4, 2022) - Northern Arizona Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mike Smith sweeps men and women's Coach of the Year awards while Alyssa Colbert and Mitchell Effing sweep women and men's Freshman of the Year honors.
Mike Smith (Men's and Women's Coach of the Year) –
This marks Smith's fifth consecutive Men's Indoor Coach of the Year honor and third Women's Indoor Coach of the Year award after leading both Lumberjack squads to Big Sky Conference Championships.
Between the two programs, the Lumberjacks captured 15 event victories and 27 total podium performances at the 2022 Big Sky Indoor Championships, with eight of them coming from the men's side and seven from the women's team; the 'Jacks earned their 24th and 15th respective Big Sky titles, and swept the conference for the 12th time in school history.
The women finished with 182 points, commanding the league by 110 points, while the men completed the meet with 170 points; both totals respectively rank second and fourth-most in Big Sky history.
After a dominant showing, double-event-champions Colbert and David Dunlap earned the women and men's Co-Most Valuable Athlete awards for their gold medal performances in the 60-meter dash and 200-meter; Nico Young was also named the men's Outstanding Performer following his 3000-meter feat of 7:59.01 to set a championship meet record and rank third on the NCAA Indoor Qualifying list.
Alyssa Colbert (Women's Freshman of the Year) –
Colbert demonstrated a powerful collegiate debut, garnering both Freshman of the Year and Co-Most Valuable Athlete Awards after a double-event-champion performance last weekend.
In the women's 60-meter preliminary race, Colbert set a new NAU record as well as a Big Sky Championship meet record and a facility record of 7.32, respectively breaking Isatu Fofanah of Northern Arizona, and Gerone Black of Portland State previous times of 7.36 and Christian White's time of 7.45.
She also championed the women's 200-meter with a time of 24.44, to score a total of 20 points for the Lumberjack women.
Mitchell Effing (Men's Freshman of the Year) –
Effing led the NAU men's jump squad in Bozeman with a gold medal performance of 7.41 meters in the long jump and a fourth place finish with 15.31 meters in the triple jump to contribute 15 points to the final Lumberjack tally.
*The cancellation of 2021 indoor championships allowed Effing to be eligible for this award
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