The list of honors continues to grow for Michael Friess.
On Monday, the UAA track and field and cross-country running coach earned the distinction of women's indoor track and field West Region coach of the year -- his 27th such award. That marks Friess' fifth coach of the year honor for track to go along with his 22 for cross country. Friess has 16 Great Northwest Athletic Conference honors and six region honors.
Three other Seawolves received awards including assistant coaches Ryan McWilliams and Anthony Tomosich and junior Joyce Kipchumba. McWilliams was named West Regions' women's assistant coach of the year and Tomsich earned the same honor for the men.
Kenya's Kipchumba was named West Region athlete of the year. She won GNAC titles in the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters, helping the UAA's women defend their indoor team title last month. Kipchumba is ranked second in the 5,000 and third in the 3,000 heading into the NCAA Division II championships, which start Friday in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Seawolves' outdoor track team also received recognition Monday. Sophomores Bobo Camara and Franz Burghagen and freshman Jamie Ashcroft were selected as GNAC Red Lion athletes of the week.
Ashcroft won the 100-meter dash with a conference-record rime of 11.84 seconds at last weekend's UNLV Track Classic in Las Vegas. With a time of 24.27 seconds in the 200 -- the third-best in GNAC history -- Ashcroft has provisionally qualified in both events for the NCAA Divison II outdoor championships.
Camara and Burghagen's performances in Sin City automatically qualified them for the NCAA championships in May.
Camara swept both hurdle events. His 110-meter time of 15.07 seconds is an automatic qualifying time while his time of 53.14 provisionally qualifies Camara in the 400 hurdles.
Burghagen won the javelin with a heave of 216 feet, 10 inches -- an automatic qualifying distance.
Anchorage Daily News