By: Erin Madden

BEREA, Ohio - Baldwin Wallace University senior All-Ohio Athletic Conference distance runner Hastings Marek (Pataskala/Watkins Memorial) has been named the OAC Women's Indoor Distance Athlete of the Year, as selected by the league's coaches. 

Marek had an exceptional indoor season from start to finish, which included breaking the same school record twice and four All-OAC performances. The senior won the 1-mile run and the 1,000-meter run at the 2021 OAC Indoor Championships, anchored the winning distance medley relay team and ran the third leg of the runner-up 4x400-meter relay team. Marek's 1,000-meter win also came in a school-record time of 2:57.87, a record she had previously set only weeks earlier. 

Her name was written all over the national rankings: third in the mile, seventh in the 3,000-meter run and 10th in the 800-meter run. Marek was also a member of the third-best distance medley relay team in the country. 

This marks the first time in Marek's career that she has been named Distance Athlete of the Year. She was the lone BW representative in the conference's postseason awards. 

With the 2021 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships cancelled, BW will not compete again until the outdoor season on Saturday, March 20, at Marietta College inside Don Drumm Stadium.