Sophomore sprinters
Earnest Cleary and
Lesley Hanna were both honored as the top Titan performers as UDM head coach
Guy Murray recently announced the annual end of the year track and field awards.
Cleary was the outdoor MVP after winning his first Horizon League title taking the 100-meters at 10.85 and scoring sixth in 200m at his collegiate best of 22.09 at the conference championships. He had a remarkable season running all but two of 10 races under 11 and six races equal to or better than his previous best, including a UDM record of 10.66 for third at Bucknell. He won all of his races at the two home meets and holds facility records of 10.79 for 100m and 22.18 in the 200m. He currently holds nine of top 12 Titan 100m performances in school history.
He also anchored the 4x100-meter relay team to the second best mark in Titan annals of 42.33 at Hillsdale as well as posting two other top 10 times and anchoring the 4x200m to a UDM record of 1:28.70 at Raleigh.
Hanna took home the honor for the indoor season after winning the 400m in 48.21, a UDM best on 200m track, and finishing runner-up in the 200m at the conference indoor championships. For the season, Hanna won three of five races in the 400m, coming within .02 of the school record with a 47.86 at Akron, becoming just the third Titan to break 48 in the event. In the 200m, he won four of five races, not losing a head to head race, while setting a UDM indoor record of 22.04 at Grand Valley, a run that ranks fourth on the all-time school list.
Along the way, the second-year sprinter rewrote the 300m record with a 34.41 to win at the Don Wright Team Challenge and even earned the fourth best school mark in the high jump with a 6’6.25” at the EMU Quad. He also took part of the record breaking 4x200m that won at Don Wright in 1:31.26 and anchored the 4x400m to wins in the EMU Quad and Grand Valley, as well as a 47.5 carry for the HL runner-up spot.
The Coach’s Award went to
John LaRocca for indoors and
Eric Christy in outdoors. LaRocca was a four-year Horizon League scorer on the 4x400m, earning All-Horizon League second team honors in 2008 and 2009. The senior ran a 600m personal record of 1:23.32 for the #10 spot on all-time Titan list and also posted a 400m indoor PR of 50.48 at the conference championships. Besides his track performances, LaRocca is known as a hard worker who is the consummate teammate.
Christy bounced back from an injury during a very promising indoor season to work his way back into competition running the last two meets of the outdoor campaign finishing 12th in the 400m at the conference meet.
The Student-Athlete award went to sophomore
Patrick Liederbach for both the indoor and outdoor season. Liederbach holds a 3.343 GPA in Education. He opened the indoor season with a UDM record of 14:37.51 in the 5000m at Notre Dame’s Blue & Gold Invitational. He ran a 4:11.31 mile at the Akron Open, good for the second best run ever in school history, and posted a great Horizon League Championship effort taking third in the 5000m (14:41.78), the second fastest Titan 5k, and fifth in 3000m in 8:22.47, lowering the UDM record by eight seconds.
When the spring weather filled the air, he started the outdoors with a 3:54.44 1500m PR at Raleigh, becoming just the third Titan to break 3:55. He lowered his 5000m record to 14:32.85 at Bucknell and ran a14:33.52 at Hillsdale giving him the top four Titan 5000m times. Liederbach led from the gun in a dominating win in the Oakland dual, breaking William Daly’s 74 year old outdoor mile record with a 4:13.68. In the outdoor league meet, the Petosky, MI native scored sixth in the 5000m at 15:01.24 following a 3:57.42 seventh-place performance in the 1500m.
Freshman
Vushaun Landrum earned the Rookie of the Year honor for both the indoor and outdoor season. He started his collegiate career by improving his 60m in all but one meet after his 7.19 Titan debut at Notre Dame in December, a run that was No. 8 in school history. He improved that to 7.06 for third in indoor league championships, moving him to fourth in Titan annals and was also an HL long jump finalist placing eighth at 19’7.75”.
In outdoors, the Windsor, ON product opened the season becoming just the second Titan to break 11 just missing the finals with a 10.97 in the 100m, while running a leg on the record breaking UDM 4x200m of 1:28.70 at Raleigh. He lowered his 100m career best to 10.86 taking sixth at Bucknell and ran a 21.76 200m for fifth at Hillsdale, good for a Titan rookie record and No. 2 run all-time. Landrum went on to claim another rookie record in 100m at Windsor with a 10.70 and was a member of the 4x100m team that posted the second best school mark of 42.33 at Hillsdale and two other top 10 times during year. He ended his freshman season taking fourth in 200m at the HL outdoor meet in 21.82.
The Titans Most Improved award was earned by
Kevin Smalley for indoors and
Alex Gould during outdoors. Smalley’s hard work in the off season proved instrumental in moving up events to longer distances and improving in all along the way. He opened the year with a 47-second improvement in 5000m running a 16:13.28 at Notre Dame. The sophomore also earned personal records in the 3000m (8:55.54) at Akron and the mile (4:27.17) at the Silverston Invite, and ran the 1200m lead-off on the third place HL distance medley in 3:09.40 at the league championships.
Gould was consistently at his best throughout the year nailing a pair of PR splits of 1:54.9 on the sprint medley and 1:56.5 on the 4x800m. The junior distance runner won the 800m in the Oakland Dual with a 1:55.58 career best time, a run that ranks 10th on the Titan all-time list, and used a big kick to drop his 1500m PR by nine seconds running a 4:04.47 at the Paddock Invite.
Christy and Hanna were also tabbed the Comeback Athletes of the Year after their perseverance and dedication were on display as both runners returned from injuries. In the indoor season, Christy kept working hard to return from a series of injuries to end up back on the conference championship podium as part of the runner-up 4x400m. He was also a 400m HL finalist taking eighth at 50.68.
Hanna matched that effort in outdoors after missing a lot of training and two weeks of competition with injury at the start of the season. He tallied a 47.85 400m PR at EMU in his second week of competition and broke a UDM record with 47.25 at Hillsdale, just missing the NCAA regional standard by .05. He would end the year taking third in the HL 400m at 47.82 and fifth in the 200m at 21.86, just the fifth Titan to break 22, and anchored 4x400m to a fourth-place effort with a 46.7 carry.
The final accolade of the year went to Christy, LaRocca and senior
Adam Mayhew as the three Titans were all four-year varsity letterwinners. All three ended their collegiate careers as Horizon League scorers who have also earned All-League honors as a Titan.
Letterwinners.
3 year- Sam Jones, Deonte Osayande, Kevin Wozniak
2 year- Earnest Cleary, Alex Gould, Brian Greenhoe, Lesley Hanna, Alex Harris, Patrick Liederbach, Matt Mahler, Kevin Smalley
1 year- Marcus Acuna, Ryan Ayala, Aviram Campbell, Vushaun Landrum, Joe LaRocca