SUWANEE, Ga. -- After exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the league office today announced its 2023 Women's Outdoor Track & Field postseason awards.
Kierra Francois of Trinity University earned Field Athlete-of-the-Year honors, while Ebonee Nation of University of St. Thomas was selected as the Women’s Track Athlete-of-the-Year.
Rounding out the balloting, Nation was also tabbed as the Women’s Newcomer-of-the-Year while the Trinity coaching staff earned Women’s Staff-of-the-Year honors.
The all-conference team is determined by performance at the conference championship meet where the top three finishers in each event are recognized as All-SCAC. Complete All-SCAC Women's Track & Field Team
Francois, a senior from Angleton, Texas, was named the Women’s Athlete of the Meet after she won both the javelin (119’7”) and hammer throw (166’10”) and took third in the discuss (120’4”) at the 2023 SCAC Championships. She is the first Tiger to win the hammer throw since 2013 (Anecia Richardson) and the javelin since 2014 (Kelsey Oelze). Her toss in the hammer was the fourth longest mark in SCAC Championship history. Following the conference meet, Francois earned United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Region honors in the hammer for the first time in her career.
Francois’ selection marks the seventh time a Trinity student-athlete has earned SCAC Field Athlete-of-the-Year honors and the first since Jordyn White in 2021.
Nation, a first-year from Corpus Christi, Texas, scored 20.5 points at the SCAC Championships by winning the 100-meter hurdles (15.03), finishing third in the 100-meters (12.55) and taking seventh in the long jump (15’8.25”), while also running a leg on the winning 4x100 meter relay team (48.44). Her win in the 100-meter hurdles marked the first SCAC title in the event in program history. Nation’s top times this year in both the 100-hurdles (14.98) and 100-meters (12.50) ranked as the eighth and 21st best times, respectively, in the West Region.
A two-time SCAC Track Athlete-of-the-Week during the 2023 outdoor season, Nation is the first UST athlete to earn both SCAC Track Athlete and Newcomer-of-the-Year honors. Historically, she is just the second athlete in SCAC history to win both Track Athlete and Newcomer-of-the-Year in the same year, joining Texas Lutheran’s Jackie Mora who accomplished the feat back in 2021.
Finally, the conference's Women’s Track & Field Staff of the Year honor went to the Trinity staff after another strong season which culminated in the Tigers winning the SCAC women’s track & field championship for the eighth consecutive year and 16th time overall, the most of any program in league history. Led by 10th-year Head Coach Marcus Whitehead, the award marks the eighth-straight year he and his assistant coaches were honored as the SCAC Women’s Staff of the Year.
