Tuesday, May 24, 2011

MORAVIAN’S SCHAFFER & WOODRUFF NAMED MIDEAST REGION OUTDOOR FEMALE FIELD AND
MALE TRACK ATHLETES OF THE YEAR BY USTFCCCA

NEW ORLEANS, LA --- Junior pole vaulter Abigail Schaffer (Easton, PA/Easton HS) of the Moravian College outdoor track & field team has been named the 2011 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III Mideast Region Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year while senior sprinter Eric Woodruff (Brodheadsville, PA/Pius X HS) has earned Male Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year honors announced late Monday.

The duo will be honored at the championship banquet Wednesday evening in Delaware, Ohio as they prepare to compete in the 2011 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by the Ohio Wesleyan University, Thursday through Saturday, May 26th to 28th.

Schaffer, who was also the 2011 USTFCCCA Division III Indoor National Field Athlete of the Year and the Mideast Region Indoor Field Athlete of the Year, enters the NCAA Championships as the second seed in the pole vault, having earned her season’s best of 13-3 ¾ (4.06m) last weekend at the ECAC Division III Championships as she won her second ECAC title of the year.  Schaffer was the pole vault champion at the 2011 Landmark Conference Indoor and Outdoor Championships and has vaulted over four meters in eight meets, three of them outdoors.  Schaffer won the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championship with an NCAA meet record vault of 4.17 meters (13 feet, 8 ¼ inches).  She will compete in the outdoor competition on Thursday at 5:00 p.m.

Woodruff, who was the 2011 USTFCCCA Mideast Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, won the 100 and 200-meter dashes at both the Landmark Conference Championships and ECAC Division III Championships this spring.  Woodruff has lost just one individual race in the two events outdoors, and he earned 2011 Landmark Conference Indoor Track Athlete of the Year honors after winning conference titles in the 55-meter and 200-meter dashes and running a leg of the winning 4×200-meter relay. Woodruff is the top-ranked competitor and two-time defending national champion in the 200-meter dash heading into this weekend’s NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships with a season-best clocking of 20.97 seconds.  Woodruff will compete in the preliminaries on Thursday at 7:45 p.m.  The finals of the 200-meter dash are set for 4:05 p.m. on Saturday.  He is also tied for the top time in the 100-meter dash at 10.48 seconds and will run in the preliminaries on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and the finals are set for Saturday at 3:00 p.m.  Woodruff will also compete on Moravian’s 4x100-meter relay squad in the preliminaries on Thursday at 6:15 p.m.