2017 Peach Belt Men ’ s Track & Field

Elite 15 Award Presented by EAB Tyler McCabe , Florida Tech

Coach of the Year Dr . Peter Ormsby , UNC Pembroke

Track Athlete of the Year Silus Kipkoech , UNC Pembroke

Field Athlete of the Year Stefan Matula , Nova Southeastern

Freshman Track Athlete of the Year Silus Kipkoech , UNC Pembroke

Freshman Field Athlete of the Year Nate Blackmon , Columbus State

as well at 5:20 p . m . Competing against a field of mostly upperclassmen , Florida Tech ’ s Ondrej Rapp and Joshua Norville performed admirably at DII ’ s biggest stage . For Rapp , in particular , his performance has put him in a category all by himself , as he became the first All-American in the history of the Florida Tech men ’ s track & field program .

Rapp opened the long jump competition with a foul in his first attempt . However , he bounced back with a distance of 7.45m in his second attempt , which eventually clinched him a seventh place result in the final and All-American honors .

Norville just missed on his first two attempts , recording a pair of fouls , before posting a leap of 7.03m to finish 12th overall in the competition .

NCAA Track & Field – Day Two

BRADENTON , FLA – Friday was all about the hurdles for PBC student-athletes at the NCAA Track & Field Championships . In the men ’ s 110 hurdles , Nova Southeastern ’ s Rohan Mullings and UNC Pembroke ’ s Christian Ceccato competed .

Mullings competed in the third heat of the 110m hurdles for Nova Southeastern . Despite a valiant effort against some of the fastest runners in the country , Mullings was unable to qualify for the final tomorrow , running the event in 14.53s . The Royal Palm Beach , Florida native concludes his career at NSU as a national qualifier , PBC Champion and school record holder in the aforementioned event .

UNCP sophomore Christian Ceccato crossed in a time of 14.70 seconds on the way to a 17th place finish in the 110-meter hurdles . Ceccato , who registered a pair of NCAA provisional qualifying times

over the last three days , was the seventh UNCP student-athlete in the last nine years selected to participate in NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field ’ s premier event . Ceccato is the program ’ s first representative selected to compete in a hurdles event in 34 years .

NCAA Track & Field – Day Three

BRADENTON , FLA – The PBC crowned two more All-Americans as the 2017 NCAA Track & Field national championships came to a close on Saturday . Nova Southeastern ’ s Sharkira Bartley finished third in the triple jump while Columbus State ’ s Xavier Matthews finished sixth in the 100 meter dash . The PBC finishes the event with three All-Americans .

The last of eight to qualify for the finals , Matthews crossed the line in a time of 10.54 seconds for sixth place overall .

Matthews becomes the first men ’ s track & field All-American in Columbus State history .

The Cougar 4x100 relay team had a disappointing Saturday night , mishandling an exchange in the finals . The Cougars still finished as one of the top eight teams in the country .

This national championship appearance marked the first for the CSU track & field program since 2012 and first for the men since 2010 .

2017 PBC Men ’ s Track & Field All-Region Selections

Nova Nova Nova Nova Nova Nova Nova UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP UNCP