Five earn Track & Field Athlete of the Year honors
Track & Field standouts Raymond Radway, Camille Vandendreissche and Winrose Karunde of Abilene Christian along with Angelo State's Ashley Painter and Adree Lakey were selected as the 2008 Lone Star Conference Track & Field Athletes of the Year. The awards were announced Friday following a vote of the league's head coaches.
The Wildcats Radway was the male track honoree and Vandendreissche was voted top male field athlete, while Karunde shared female track honors with the Rambelles Painter and ASU's Lakey was the top female field athlete.
Radway, Vandendreissche and Karunde helped ACU claim both the men's and women's team titles at the 2008 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships for the first time since 1999. It was the seventh time ACU had won both team crowns. It was the seventh straight national title and 18th overall NCAA outdoor championship for the ACU men as well.
Radway won the men's 400 meters national title in a time of 46.35. He was also a double-winner at the LSC Championships, claiming the 200 and 400, as the Wildcats won their 15th straight league title.
Vandendreissche made up a 400-point deficit on the final day of the decathlon to win his second straight national championship in the event. Just the ninth athlete in NCAA Division II history to win back-to-back national titles in the decathlon, he used a strong second-day performance to rally from fourth place after the first day to a first-place finish.
Painter competed in the 400-meter hurdles at the national meet, after winning the LSC title in the event with a time of 1:01.49.
Karunde won national titles in both the 3000 meter steeplechase and the 10,000 meters to make her one of three double-winners in the meet. In the 3000 meter steeplechase, she cruised to the championship in a meet record time of 10:20.42, edging out the previous record of 10:22.06 set by Jennifer Michel of Western State (Colo.) in 2001. The freshman also won the 3,000 and 5,000 at the LSC Championships.
Lakey competed in three events at the national meet, claiming the national championship in the discus, placing fourth in the shot put and fifth in the hammer throw. She tallied 19 points, earning the Rambelles a 16th place finish by herself. It was her second national title after winning the hammer as a sophomore, making her the only female in ASU history to be a two-time national champion. The junior took home three titles from the conference meet, winning the hammer, discus and shot put. She set meet records in both the hammer (172-1) and shot put (50-4.5).
