Heath is Northeast Track Athlete of the Year
6/8/2009 4:24:19 PM | Track and Field
Full List of 2009 Division I Men's and Women's Regional Athletes and Coaches of the Year
Heath's Steeplechase Time Compared to Nation's Best
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Senior steeplechase runner Kyle Heath added the honor of Men's Northeast Division Track Athlete of the Year to his growing list of accomplishments, as announced by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Monday afternoon.
The USTFCCCA honors the top track and field athletes, along with the top head coaches and assistant coaches in nine Division I regions.
"It is a great honor to receive an award that is given out to only a select group," Heath said. "It's weird to think that this is the end of the road at Syracuse and this weekend marks my final competition for the Orange. I know that I won't win every award, but I tried to do everything I could to make Syracuse a place prospective distance runners want to come to and make a name for themselves."
The Farmington, N.Y. native recorded the East Region's fastest time of the year (8:40.89) in the steeplechase. Heath's mark, executed in the season opener at the Stanford Invite, is the fifth-best performance in the country.
"I'm hoping this award and my accomplishments open some eyes to our program we've been building," Heath said. "With this last meet in front of me, I think it's pretty cool to get a prestigious award right before my final race. It puts my time at Syracuse into perspective."
Heath joins Adam Harris (Michigan – Great Lakes Region), Sean Tully (Villanova – Mid-Atlantic Region), German Fernandez (Oklahoma – State Midwest), Gil Roberts (Texas Tech – Mountain Region), Calvin Smith (Florida – South Region), Trindon Holliday (Louisiana State University – South Central Region), Sam Chelanga (Liberty – Southeast Region) and Galen Rupp (Oregon – West Region) as one of nine Male Track Athletes of the Year.
"Kyle has not only set the benchmark for our team this season, he has put this program on his shoulders and propelled it to the next level," said head coach Chris Fox. "I am extremely proud of what Kyle has accomplished this year and this award is a testament to the endless amount of hard work and perseverance he has demonstrated throughout his career."
Heath is the second member of the Orange track & field team to earn a distinction of this magnitude in program history. In 2007, All-American heptathlete Jillian Drouin earned the USTFCCCA Northeast Division Field Athlete of the Year.
On Wednesday, June 10, Heath and SU teammates Bernard Bush and junior Uhunoma Osazuwa will compete at the 2009 Division I Outdoor Track and Field NCAA Championship at the University of Arkansas. Heath will run the steeplechase semifina at 8:15 p.m. on June 10. The final race is on Friday, June 12 at 6:40 p.m. Bush qualified for the meet with a fifth-place performance in the long jump (7.38m) at the NCAA Regional. Osazuwa, the 2009 ECAC and BIG EAST Champion in the heptathlon, will contend against 25 others for the heptathlon title.Bush will compete at 4:00 p.m. on June 10, while Osazuwa's seven-event test will take place on June 11 and June 12.
In 2009, Heath has won the NCAA East Regional and IC4A titles in the steeplechase and earned his second consecutive All-BIG EAST outdoor honor. Heath's time of 8:46.51 produced Syracuse's second NCAA Regional title two weeks ago in Greensboro, N.C. Drouin was the first in program history to achieve the feat after winning the high jump crown (1.84m) at last year's NCAA Regional.
With his East Regional victory, Heath qualified for his second-straight Division I Outdoor Track and Field NCAA Championship. Last year, he became Syracuse's first All-American distance runner since Jim O'Connell (1983) after setting the school record in the steeplechase with a sixth-place time of 8:38.03 at the NCAA Championship.
Heath also won the steeplechase at the Larry Ellis Invitational with a time of 8:51.39. During the indoor season, the All-American broke the school record in the 3,000-meter run at the Alex Wilson Invitational with a time of 8:00.14. Heath earned All-BIG EAST honors in the 3K after a second place finish (8:08.31).
In 2008, Heath won the IC4A and BIG EAST titles in the steeplechase with NCAA Regional-qualifying times of 8:50.82 and 8:57.39, respectively. He also earned all-conference honors in the 5,000-meter run after a second-place performance of 14:40.69.
Last summer, Heath finished ninth in Heat 1 of the steeplechase at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Track & Field Trials in Eugene, Ore. He posted a time of 8:39.51, four second shy of qualifying for the finals.
Heath said his goal is to have a strong weekend and to come away with a professional contract. SU graduate assistant Maureen McCandless, a 2005 Pittsburgh graduate, is a professional runner for Team New Balance.
"I obviously can't talk to any of the professional, sponsored teams out there yet," Heath said. "But, it's certainly a goal of mine to continue my running at the professional level. A strong finish this weekend would be ideal."
