Heins, McNeill Take Home All-Region Awards
NEW ORLEANS, La. – It has
been quite a year for the duo of Interim Director of Track and
Field & Cross Country Eric Heins and senior student-athlete
David McNeill of Northern Arizona. The pair learned Tuesday that
they had each won awards from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross
Country Coaches Associations (USTFCCCA).
Heins won the Mountain Region Men’s Coach of the Year award,
and McNeill was named Mountain Region Track Athlete of the
Year.
In just his first year overseeing the track and field program at
NAU, Heins has now won four coach of the year honors, including
three from the Big Sky, and has the men’s team ranked No. 19
in the country.
“It feels so surreal right now,” Heins said. “It
feels amazing to be rewarded with this award as voted on by my
peers. Just like I said about winning Big Sky Coach of the Year, it
just says how good of a staff we have here at NAU.”
Heins also knows that this award wouldn’t be possible with
out the strong efforts all of his athletes have put in.
“You don’t receive a coach of the year award if you
don’t have great athletes,” Heins said. “It says
a lot about what the athletes have done with improving over the
last few years. This year we went through a transition and we were
still able to be successful in the conference and now at the
national level. This is a program that is very well rounded and we
are going to continue to push that.”
This is the second award in a week that McNeill has received from
the USTFCCCA as he took home the Division I Scholar-Athlete of the
Year award for cross country last Tuesday. The Australian native is
once again being honored for his hard work he has put in on the
track this indoor season. He heads to Fayetteville, Ark., for the
national championships with the nations top-times in the 3,000
(7:47.52) and 5,000-meter events (13:39.32).
McNeill has now won three Mountain Region Athlete of the Year
awards, including two from the 2008 and 2009 cross country seasons.
The last Lumberjack to win the award was Lopez Lomong in 2007 when
he was crowned indoor and outdoor Male Track Athlete of the Year
for the region.
Make sure to catch McNeill and teammate Javier Villarreal in
action at the NCAA Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday.
ESPN360.com will stream the championships LIVE beginning at 8 p.m.
CST on Fri., March 12 and 6:10 p.m. CST on Sat., March 13. To
access the live stream, visit www.ESPN360.com.
ArkansasRazorbacks.com will stream supplemental coverage as
available when ESPN360.com is not live. Live results can be found
at ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
