Shelley Spires Earns USTFCCCA Regional Award
3/6/2017 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
NEW ORLEANS – Air Force junior high jumper Shelley Spires was named the USTFCCCA Mountain Region Women's Field Athlete of the Year for the 2017 indoor track and field season, the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association announced this morning (March 6). Spires is the first Air Force female to earn a regional Field Athlete award from the USTFCCCA during the indoor season.
The junior posted a career-best clearance of 6'1½" – the fourth-best mark in the nation this year – during a record-setting season that saw her reset the program standard four times and claim the first Mountain West indoor high jump title in program history.
An NCAA qualifier in her signature event, Spires became the first female high jumper in Air Force history to break the six-foot mark in competition, as she cleared 6'0" at the Potts Invitational. She improved that height twice during the Elite section of the Air Force Invitational, eventually winning the event with a clearance of 6'1½" – a mark that also broke the six-year-old Mountain West record. Spires, who won five of six regular-season meets and the conference title, was named the MW Indoor Women's Field Athlete of the Week four times during the 2016-17 season.
Spires will conclude her indoor season this weekend, when she joins teammates Kyle Pater (pole vault), Kathryn Tomczak (pole vault) and Jamiel Trimble (200-meter dash) at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships in College Station, Texas.
