Outdoor Track and Field

Kevin Phipps

Jarrod Davis

Complete List of Award Winners

Live Video of Awards Banquet

BEREA, OHIO – Baldwin Wallace University senior four-time track and field All-American Kevin Phipps (Patalaska/  Watkins Memorial) and Assistant Coach for Throwers Jarrod Davis have been honored by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) as the Great Lakes Region Men’s Field Athlete of the Year and Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year respectively.  Phipps and Davis will receive their awards at a banquet on Wednesday May 25, prior to the start of the 2011 NCAA Division III National Championship Meet hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University.

This season,  Phipps has been named the Kenneth Steingass Most Outstanding Senior Male Athlete at the College, the Most Outstanding Field Event Athlete at this year’s Ohio Athletic Conference Indoor Championship Meet and the OAC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week on four occassions (twice indoor and twice outdoor) and eight times during his career.

This Saturday, Phipps will compete in the hammer, shot put and discus at the 2011 NCAA Division III National Outdoor Championship Meet at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. He will compete in the hammer on May 26 at 3:00 p.m., shot put on May 27 at 4:00 p.m. and in the discus on May 28 at 12:00 p.m.  He enters the meet ranked sixth in the nation in the hammer throw with a school-record and career-best mark of 199-feet and three inches at the North Central (Ill.) College Gregory Track and Field Invitational last weekend.  Phipps is ranked fifth in the nation in discus with a throw of 174’2” at last week’s Augustana (Ill.) College Meet.  He is ranked 16th in the shot put after a career-best toss for 53’8.5” at the May 6 University of Toledo Rocket Invitational.

At last year’s NCAA Div. III Outdoor Championship Meet, Phipps finished sixth in both the discus and the hammer throws to earn his third and fourth Div. III All-American awards.  He also earned All-America accolades as a sophomore in the discus outdoors in 2009 and indoors in the 35-pound weight throw in 2010.
 
“Kevin Phipps deserves every award that he receives,” said Yellow Jacket veteran Head Coach Bill Taraschke. “He is an outstanding student leader and student-athlete. Every day, whether it is a practice or a competition, Kevin leads by example.  He is a great athlete and a humble young man who is among the finest I’ve ever coached.”

Davis, who is in his fourth season as the throwers coach, has guided eight All-American performances, numerous Ohio Athletic Conference champions and the 2009 and 2011 USTFCCA Great Lakes Regional Men’s Field Athlete of the Year (Phipps and Greg Patrick ‘09 was the other). Both his men’s and women’s throwers have dramatically improved their throwing marks. In four seasons, Davis-coached student-athletes have set six school-records. His throwers will likely add to his total of Div. III All-Americans as he has three throwers competeing this weekend (Phipps, sophomore Mitch Supan and sophomore Cristine Perrine while three others were provisional qualifiers who narrowly missed making the final national meet cut). Davis also was a finalist for this award in 2009.

“Jarrod continues to be a jem on a very strong coaching staff of highly-skilled teachers,” said Taraschke. “It is nice to see him be recognized for doing such an outstanding job.  Over the past four years, our throwers have learned a great deal from Jarrod and are helping our teams win championships. A large part of that success can be given to Jarrod.”

FOR MORE BW Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics