DeVante' Jack Named SCAC Men's Newcomer of the Year
After exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the league office today announced its 2022 Men's Outdoor Track & Field postseason awards.
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- After exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the league office today announced its 2022 Men's Outdoor Track & Field postseason awards.
Elijah Jefferson of Texas Lutheran University and Sean Majors of Trinity University split the vote to share Men's Track Athlete-of-the-Year honors while Majors was also named Field Athlete-of-the-Year - the second consecutive year he has received that accolade.
Rounding out the balloting, DeVante' Jack of Centenary College was voted Men's Newcomer-of-the-Year while the Trinity coaching staff earned Men's Staff-of-the-Year honors.
The all-conference team is determined by performance at the conference championship meet where the top three finishers in each event are recognized as All-SCAC.
Jefferson, a first-year from San Antonio, Texas, won both the 100 (10.72 - fifth-fastest time in conference meet history) and 200 meters (21.61 - fourth-fastest time in conference meet history) at the 2022 SCAC Championship and ran the second leg on the 4x100 relay team that took second place at that meet. His top time in the 100 ranked 12th in the West Region while his 200 meters time was 10th in the West Region and 44th in all of Division III.
Jefferson's selection represents the sixth time a TLU student-athlete has earned SCAC Track Athlete-of-the-Year honors as Marquis Brown won the award four straight years from 2015 to 2018 and Darren Jones received the honor following the 2019 season.
Majors, a senior from Fredericksburg, Texas, is the first student-athlete in conference history to be recognized as both Track Athlete-of-the-Year and Field Athlete-of-the-Year. On the track, he won the 400 at the 2022 SCAC Championship with a time of 48.11 (fourth-fastest in conference meet history). At conference, he also was on the winning 4x100 team that set a new conference meet record (41.18) and ran a leg of the winning 4x400 team that ran the second fastest 4x400 in conference meet history (3:17.46). In addition to his relay duties, Majors also took third in the 200 (21.69). He finished the season ranked 26th in the 400 (48.11) and 17th in the 4x100 (41.15, new SR) and 22nd in the 4x400 (3:16.01).
He earned Field Athlete-of-the-Year honors based on his incredible efforts in the long jump. After posting a SCAC long jump record at the 2022 championship meet with a leap of 7.34 meters (24' 1"), besting his previous mark of 23' 11" from the previous year's meet, he set a new Trinity school record and placed sixth at the NCAA D3 national meet with a leap of 7.52m to become an All American for the second straight year. Majors now has national finishes of third (2021 outdoor), fifth (2022 indoor) and sixth in the long jump in his career, representing all three of his All-American performances. The only other Division III Men's All-American long jumper for the Tigers is assistant coach Todd Wildman '09.
Major's selection as Track Athlete-of-the-Year marks the fourth time a Trinity student-athlete has received that honor (since the award was split into Track athlete and Field athlete in 2011) and his Field Athlete-of-the-Year accoldade represents the sixth time a Trinity student-athlete has received that honor. He is just the second man to win Field Athlete-of-the-Year in consecutive years, joining former TU Tiger Matt Love who won the award in 2017 and 2018.
Jack, a sophomore from Jena, La., won the men's 800 meter run in a conference-record time of 1:52.37 and became the first Centenary student-athlete to win an event at the conference championship meet. The time was the 44th-fastest in the event this season in all of Division III. He was named the SCAC Men's Track Athlete of the Week following his win in the 800 in a previous season-best time of 1:56.85 on April 15 at the Little Rock Twilight. Jack is the first Centenary student-athlete to earn Newcomer of the Year honors.
The Trinity University staff was selected for Track and Field Staff-of-the-Year after winning the 2022 SCAC Men's Track and Field Championship in April. Led by head coach Marcus Whitehead, the team picked up seven individual victories and both relay wins en route to the program's second straight and 13th overall SCAC Men's Track & Field title. This is the 13th overall time the Trinity University staff has been honored with SCAC Men's Staff-of-the-Year honors, and the sixth time under Whitehead's leadership.
