NATCHITOCHES -- Following nationally-noteworthy performances last weekend at the Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Northwestern State competitors Trecey Rew and Justin Walker received top honors from the league's coaches Wednesday.
Rew, a junior thrower for the Lady Demons from Garland, Texas, was voted the league's female Field Events Athlete of the Year. Walker, a sprinter from Slidell-Northshore High, won the SLC's male Freshman of the Year award.
Rew was the SLC Championships' female High Point Scorer, providing 26 points for Northwestern by sweeping the shot put and discus titles and finishing third in the hammer throw. She posted a 54-4 1/2 shot put mark, a 176-8 discus throw, and a 162-7 distance in the hammer. The shot and discus performances rank among the top 15 nationally.
Walker ran a 10.15 time in a runner-up finish in the 100 meter dash, then won the 200 meter title in 20.49. Both marks are among the top 10 nationally. Also Sunday, he ran the second leg on the Demons' third-place 4x100 meter relay team that finished in 40.53.
Rew won the shot by over six feet and the discus by over 21 feet. Rew ranks sixth nationally in the shot with a school-record 54-11 1/4 throw at LSU earlier this spring, and her throw at the SLC meet was good enough to rank 10th in the country.
She moved up from 14th to 11th in the discus with her school and meet record performance on Sunday.
Walker's 200 time is sixth nationally while breaking a 29-year-old school record held by All-American and future NFL Rookie of the Year Joe Delaney. It was nearly a half-second faster than Walker's previous best.
Walker's 100m best mark, 10.13, also ranks sixth nationally. His 10.15 at the SLC Championships is eighth-fastest.
Southland sprinters own three of the USA's top eight 100 times: Sunday's winner, Teddy Williams of Texas-San Antonio, ran the country's fastest time, 10.03, while the third-place finisher, Cordero Gray from Texas-Arlington, moved into the Top 10 with a 10.16 time that ranks eighth.
Williams was named the male Outstanding Track Performer of the Southland meet.
Rew and Walker will be among the Northwestern competitors heading to the NCAA East Regional Championships May 27-29 in Greensboro, N.C., at Irwin Bell Track, hosted by North Carolina A&T. The national meet is June 9-12 at Eugene, Ore., at fabled Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus, site of the 2008 USA Olympic Trials.
