LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- After exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the league office today announced its 2018 Men's Outdoor Track & Field postseason awards.
Marquis Brown of Texas Lutheran University and Cody Hall of Trinity University earned Men's Track Co-Athletes-of-the-Year, while Matt Love of Trinity was selected the Men's Field Athlete-of-the-Year. The honor for Brown is the fourth consecutive year he has been selected Track Athlete of the Year while the award for Love marks the second consecutive year he has been so honored.
Brown's teammate Michael Wong was named the Newcomer-of-the-Year, and the TLU coaching staff, led by Head Coach Darlene Holland, earned Staff-of-the-Year recognition.
Brown, a senior from Refugio, Texas, Brown, and the 2017 NCAA DIII Indoor Track & Field national champion in the 400, is a four-time All-American on the track, having secured three outdoor track & field honors and one indoor track & field award. A week ago at the 2018 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, he led TLU's 4x100-meter relay team to a national runner-up finish, and also claimed his fourth All-America award by finishing sixth in the 400 with a time of 47.37. He was also a member of the 4x400 relay team which just missed out on All-America honors with a ninth-place finish.
Earlier this year, he picked up All-Region awards in three events - the 400, the 4x100 and the 4x400 - and at the 2018 SCAC Track and Field Championship meet, Brown won the 400 for the fourth consecutive year - becoming just the 10th man in league history to win the same event four times in a career. Equally impressive off the track, Brown advanced to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® ballot in an announcement made last week after picking up enough votes to claim Google Cloud Academic All-District® First Team honors among District 8 Men's Track & Field/Men's Cross Country nominees.
Hall was the SCAC Male Athlete of the Meet for the third straight year after scoring the most points of any men's individual at this year's conference dhampionship meet. He won the long jump title, the 110-meter hurdles championship, and finished as runner-up in the high jump. Hall came in third in the triple jump and pole vault, and fifth in the 400-meter hurdles and shot put.
He earned All-America distinction at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a second-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles, missing the winning slot by a mere .01 seconds. Hall is now a three-time All-American, as he placed fourth in the 2017 110-meter hurdles at the Outdoor meet, and was second in the Indoor 60-meter hurdles the same year. He also made this year's All-South/Southeast Region Team in the 110-meter hurdles, along with the high jump and long jump.
Love received the SCAC Men's Field Athlete of the Year award for the second consecutive time. He captured the SCAC discus throw for the third time in his career, and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the third straight occasion. Love finished in eighth place and earned All-America accolades, and earlier was named to the All-South/Southeast Region Team. An outstanding student, Love was elected to the Google Cloud NCAA Division III Academic All-District 8 Men's Track/Cross Country Team for the second year in a row.
Wong, a freshman from La Vernia, Texas, qualified as part of two relays to the NCAA Championships, including earning All-America status as part of the second-place 4x100 relay. The 4x100 relay ran a school record in 40.65 with Wong on the second leg. He ran a 47.6 second split as third leg in the preliminary round of the 4x400 relay at the NCAA Championships to help TLU qualify for the finals and finish ninth overall. At the 2018 SCAC championship meet, Wong helped TLU capture the conference title by placing fourth in both the 100 and 200 meter events.
The Texas Lutheran staff was a unanimous selection for Track and Field Staff-of-the-Year after winning the 2018 SCAC Men's Track and Field Championship. Led by head coach Darlene Holland, the team sent a league-high seven athletes to the 2018 NCAA Division III championship and earned five All-America honors while finishing tied for 27th in the final team standings. The Bulldogs scored 11 team points - eight from the national runner-up finish in the 4x100 relay and three for the the sixth-place showing for senior Marquis Brown in the 400. In addition, the team placed 10 student-athletes on the All-Region squad for the South/Southeast Region.