COMPLETE USTFCCA Awards (.pdf)
BEREA, Ohio – Baldwin Wallace University junior All-American pentathlete Melanie Winters (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls) has been named as both the United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) Great Lakes Division III Region Most Valuable Field Athlete and Most Valuable Track Athlete. It marks the first time a Great Lakes Region student-athlete has earned both awards in the same season.
Winters was one of four Yellow Jacket student-athletes to compete at last weekend's national meet where the Yellow Jackets placed 25th. She scored 3,581 points in the pentathlon on Friday (March 13), 18 shy of her BW school-record of 3,599. In the pentathlon, she placed first in both the 60-meter hurdles (8.84 seconds) and long jump (18'6"). Winters also placed 13th individually in the high jump (5'3") on Saturday (March 14).
At the 2015 OHio Athletic Conference Championship Meet, Winters won three events and placed second in two others. At the 2015 All-Ohio Championship Meet, she won five events, including the pentathlon and four individual titles. She also was the first-ever OAC student-athlete to be the OAC Track Athlete of the Week for five consecutive weeks. She has now won that award 11 times in two-plus seasons.
This winter, Winters set six school indoor records, the 55 (7.29 seconds) and 60-meter (7.74 seconds) dashes, 55 (8.24 seconds) and 60-meter (8.80 seconds) hurdles, long jump (19'4") and pentathlon and now owns seven school records overall. She also set a personal-best indoors in the high jump (5'6").
This weekend, Winters and her Yellow Jacket men's and women's teammates travel to Charlotte, North Carolina to compete at the UNC-Charlotte 49er Invitational Meet from Thursday through Saturday, March 19-21.