Butts Named USTFCCCA Regional Field Athlete Of The Year
March 05, 2012 | Track & Field
March 5, 2012
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Junior All-America Tynita Butts has been named the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Southeast Region Field Athlete of the Year according to an announcement by the organization Monday.
Butts secured a mark of 1.85 meters, the fifth-highest nationally, in the high jump at the Conference USA Indoor Championships - helping East Carolina capture its first-ever indoor women's team title since joining the Dallas-based association. With her performance in Birmingham, she assured herself of an automatic berth to the NCAA Indoor Championships which are scheduled for March 9-10 in Boise, Idaho.
The C-USA event title marked her second consecutive and third overall as she won last year's outdoor high jump championship to continue her dominance over the league field. Butts looks to improve on her fourth-place finish at last season's indoor nationals where she produced a mark of 1.84 meters - .03 behind her personal best set a year ago at Christopher Newport.
The Pirate women have enjoyed an immense amount of success recently as Butts and her teammates downed defending C-USA champion and current national No. 14 UCF by a 123-113.5 count in the league meet before the 4x400 relay tandem of Tyshonda Hawkins, Tiffany Harris, Tania Minkins and sophomore All-America Aiesha Goggins posted a school-record time of 3:34.02 to all but assure themselves of a place at the upcoming national championship event.
Senior Montrell Morrow, fresh off his conference title in the weight throw last weekend, is expected to join the ladies in Boise as his personal-best mark of 24.14 meters set at the Alex Wilson Invite is currently 14th nationally. That gives ECU six national qualifiers - the most in a single indoor campaign in program history.
Players Mentioned
