National Athletes of the Year for NCAA DIII Outdoor T&F Announced

NEW ORLEANS — The coaches have voted, and the results are in: Luke Campbell and Carly Fehler are the men’s and women’s NCAA Division III Track Athletes of the Year, and Jamie Ruginski and Divya Biswal are the men’s and women’s Field Athletes of the Year.

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) conducted the voting, and announced the winners Wednesday.

Campbell is a hurdler for Salisbury, Fehler is a sprinter for Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Ruginski is a jumper for Southern Maine, and Biswal is a jumper for St. Lawrence. All are seniors except for Campbell, who is a junior.

All four also won at least one NCAA title at last weekend’s championships at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York and supplemented their title with at least one more top-two finish. 

Campbell won the 110 and 400 meter hurdles and ran on a fifth-place 4×400 and sixth-place 4×100; Fehler won the 100 and 200 and anchored the winning 4×100; and Ruginski and Biswal both won the long jump and took second in the triple jump.

Both Campbell, who hails from Brunswick, Maryland, and Fehler, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, ran historically fast times this spring in defending their national championships.  

Campbell’s winning time of 13.63 seconds in the 110H—assisted by a 4.9m/s tailwind—makes him the second fastest all-conditions performer in DIII history. 

Fehler’s wind-aided 11.62 100m at the WIAC championships earlier this season makes her the third fastest DIII 100 runner ever.

That’s in addition to two top-ten times she turned in at the NCAA championships.  Fehler’s 200 win in 23.88 seconds makes her the eighth fastest DIII performer in the event (again, in all conditions) and her 4×100 meter relay team’s time of 45.90 at nationals is the second fastest in division history.

Campbell has won the last three 110 meter hurdles titles and the last two in the 400 meter hurdles, while Fehler has won the 100 at the last two NCAA meets.

Ruginski and Biswal didn’t quite crack the all-time top ten in either jump, but they’ll have to settle for ending their careers with armfuls of national titles. 

Ruginski, of Buxton, Maine, had won the triple jump and finished second in the long jump at the last two NCAA meets, and came into this year’s nationals with three triple jump titles overall. He flipped his usual script in Canton, winning the long jump with a career best leap of 7.47 meters (24-61⁄4) before taking second in the triple with the second best mark of his outdoor career.

Biswal, from Ottawa, Ontario, ended her career in dream fashion: with a personal best to win a national championship on her home runway.  She won the long jump at NCAAs with a leap of 5.95m (19-61⁄4), and it took a meet record to beat her in the triple jump. Biswal was the defending outdoor national champion in the triple.

All four won conference titles in 2015. Campbell won both hurdles and ran on both winning relays at the Capital Athletic Conference meet; Ruginski won the long and triple and ran on the winning 4×4 at the New England Alliance meet; Fehler won the 200 and ran on on the winning 4×1 at the WIAC meet; and Biswal won both horizontal jumps plus the 100 meter hurdles at the NYSCTC and Liberty League Championships.