Sharp Closes Career With Double Award

Cayden Sharp closed out her record-breaking career in historic fashion, becoming the first SLIAC Outdoor Track and Field performer to take home both the Field Athlete of the Year and the Track Athlete of the Year in the same season. Sharp, already the SLIAC career leader in both gold medals and overall medals, added to her collection over the weekend with four more golds and six medals in total. She closes out her career with 17 gold medals and 24 total medals. In her performance on Saturday, she broke four conference championship records; long jump, 100-meter hurdles, 100-meter dash, and 200-meter dash. In addition to being named the Track Athlete of the Year for the first time in her career, she picked up her third consecutive Field Athlete of the Year award. 

Hannah Myers, from Westminster College, was selected as the SLIAC Field Newcomer of the Year. The freshman competed in four events at the championships for the Blue Jays. She had three 4th place finishes; high jump, long jump, and triple jump. Myers becomes the second Blue Jay in program history to win the award, joining Katy Allen in 2021.

This year's SLIAC Track Newcomer of the Year is Eyonna Owens from Greenville University. Owns picked ran the gamut in her collection of medals. She was the anchor in the Panthers' gold-winning 4x400 relay team, finished 2nd in the 400-meters, and was 3rd in the 200-meters. Owens is the third athlete from Greenville to win the award, joining Taylor Tucker in 2018 and Cayden Sharp in 2019.

Brian Patton and the Greenville University coaching staff were chosen as the Coaching Staff of the Year after winning a third consecutive SLIAC Outdoor title. Blackburn College was selected as the Team Sportsmanship award recipient for the first time in program history.

All-Sportsmanship Team