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Mahala Norris Named MW Outdoor Athlete of the Year
6/23/2021 3:01:00 PM | Track and Field
Norris is the first Air Force female to be named MW Athlete of the Year in track and field.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The accolades keep coming for recent Academy graduate and NCAA steeplechase champion Mahala Norris, as she was named the Mountain West Women's Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year this afternoon (June 23). It is the second major conference award for Norris, who was also named the league's top female athlete in cross country earlier this year.
Norris, who is currently in Eugene, Ore., prepping for steeplechase finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials, claimed the program's fourth NCAA Division I championship title on June 12, when she used a furious kick in the final meters to win the 3000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Racing to a career-best time of 9:31.79 in the win, she accounted for the sixth-fastest time in collegiate history, the second-fastest time in Mountain West history and a mark that improved her own Academy Record for the fourth time in five meets.
Her victory at the NCAA Championships came less than a month after she earned back-to-back conference titles at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships. Using Championship Meet Record times to win the steeplechase (then career-best 9:44.10 – a three-second improvement over the previous Meet Record) and 5000-meter events (career-best 15:39.13 – the second-fastest time in Air Force history and one that bettered the old Meet Record by five seconds), Norris was named the league's Performer of the Meet and qualified to the Trials in her signature event.
With today's announcement, Norris becomes the first member of the women's program to earn a Track and Field Athlete of the Year award from the Mountain West – and the fourth overall, joining Joey Uhle (2015 Outdoor), Jamiel Trimble (2016 Outdoor) and Michael Rhoads (2019 Indoor, 2019 Outdoor).
The Mountain West's annual Athlete of the Year awards recognize the top male and female athletes in track and field. Student-athletes are nominated and selected by the head coaches at each member institution.
Norris, who is currently in Eugene, Ore., prepping for steeplechase finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials, claimed the program's fourth NCAA Division I championship title on June 12, when she used a furious kick in the final meters to win the 3000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Racing to a career-best time of 9:31.79 in the win, she accounted for the sixth-fastest time in collegiate history, the second-fastest time in Mountain West history and a mark that improved her own Academy Record for the fourth time in five meets.
Her victory at the NCAA Championships came less than a month after she earned back-to-back conference titles at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships. Using Championship Meet Record times to win the steeplechase (then career-best 9:44.10 – a three-second improvement over the previous Meet Record) and 5000-meter events (career-best 15:39.13 – the second-fastest time in Air Force history and one that bettered the old Meet Record by five seconds), Norris was named the league's Performer of the Meet and qualified to the Trials in her signature event.
With today's announcement, Norris becomes the first member of the women's program to earn a Track and Field Athlete of the Year award from the Mountain West – and the fourth overall, joining Joey Uhle (2015 Outdoor), Jamiel Trimble (2016 Outdoor) and Michael Rhoads (2019 Indoor, 2019 Outdoor).
The Mountain West's annual Athlete of the Year awards recognize the top male and female athletes in track and field. Student-athletes are nominated and selected by the head coaches at each member institution.
Players Mentioned
800m / 1500m
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800m
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