End of Season Awards

Indoors '07

Track and Field is about improvement, both in performance and as a person. That might be my most favorite part of coaching – seeing how far someone comes over their four years in track.

The performance part of it is easy to gauge by a stopwatch or tape-measure. This winner had stiff competition. Just consider how much her teammates improved.

Others high in the voting included Alex Vandeventer. Consider Alex. Last year she scored nine points – this year 44.

And Stephanie McNamara who improved at every distance from the 400 to two mile.

And Stephanie Wynn who has shown that she'll be a force to contend with outdoors.

And a lot more athletes were named.

This year's winner has put in a lot of miles to get where she is. Last spring she wasn't even on the scoring radar screen. This year she scored 17 points. This girl not only scored points in dual meets, but she also placed in the two mile at the league meet and qualified for state competition. Just when we needed a boost in the event, She stepped it up. I credit the determination she puts into every practice. This year's winner is Stephanie Moses.

Most Inspirational and Hardest Working

Djerica Lamousnery

An unsung hero is one who doesn't get much recognition for all the things she does. This girl works hard in track intervals, forcing her teammates to keep up or look bad. And she is another tireless supporter of her teammates. But I'm actually a little surprised at the vote, not because she isn't deserving, but because most of her practice time is spent away from the track.

Tonight when you watch the team DVD, its just another of the many things that Marrah does for her team. This year's winner is Marrah Fry.

First I'll tell you a little about the runner-ups. I think that will help put this performance in perspective.

# 4 on the list was Stephanie McNamara's mile setting record at Franklin Fieldhouse. The record was 16 years old and had been set on a full size indoor track – requiring only 8 laps compared to Steph's 11.

#3. The 4X400M at Hocks. Not only was it an exciting race as they pushed Franklin to the limit, but it also broke a school record.

#2. Christy Deininger's performance at Hocks. Before the meet, Christy was only considered an outside chance to make finals. Christy ran a big PR and she was beaming just to be in the top 8. Then in finals she had a big breakthrough, running a time that would put her in NA's top 10 all-time, and placing an incredible second.

But this year's winner is Amanda Parker's performance against Lindsey Booth in the dual meet. It came at an important part of the meet and was extremely fast for the track. As she often does in big meets, she boosted team spirits with a big performance.

Team records were broken 8 times this year. They were all running records, and Stephanie McNamara was in all 8.

It started at the URI Invitational when she broke the 1000M record.

At the State Relays she led off the record setting sprint medley team and came back in the 4X4 to do the same. As I said earlier, against Franklin she broke the mile record. Then Steph broke the Two Mile record at the State Coaches Elite Meet. At the Hock Championships she was part of the record-breaking 4X400. At the State Class Meet she re-broke her own two-mile record. And in her final indoor performance, she left the State Finals at Reggie Lewis Center re-breaking both her two-mile and 4X400 records.

I guess we should give her the Most Valuable Runner Award