Ben Harmon Named 2011 UAA Most Outstanding Performer in Field Events

2011 UAA OUTDOOR AWARDS

St. Louis, Mo., April 29, 2011 — Washington University in St. Louis men’s outdoor track and field senior Ben Harmon was named the 2011 University Athletic Association Outdoor Most Outstanding Performer in the Field Events while head coach Jeff Stiles and his staff were tabbed as the conference’s Men’s Outdoor Coaching Staff of the Year, it was announced Friday by the association.

Harmon, who was named the 2011 Indoor Most Outstanding Performer in Field Events in March, earns the conference’s outdoor honor for the fourth-time in his career.

He won three UAA outdoor titles and scored in seven total events to lead Washington University to its third-straight men’s UAA championship April 22-23, on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.

Harmon won the pole vault by clearing 4.45 meters and met NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship provisional qualifying standards with a leap of 7.09 meters in a first-place showing in the long jump. He was also a member of the Bears’ first-place 4x400-meter relay team (3:18.77).

Harmon also competed in the triple jump, finishing fifth with a distance of 13.46 meters, the javelin, coming in sixth (44.48 meters), and he came in seventh in the 110-meter hurdles (15.77) and the high jump (1.73 meters).

He has already automatically qualified to compete in the decathlon at the 2011 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, and he earned All-America honors in the pentathlon (fourth) and long jump (eighth) at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships.

Stiles and his staff of assistant coach Lane Lohr, and assistant coaches Jamie Kootz, Ryan McDonald, Gena Melick, Alex Talkovsky, Aubrey Edwards-Luce, Zach Griffen and Danny Edwards-Luce earned men’s outdoor coaching staff of the year honors after garnering the same award following the UAA indoor championships.

Stiles led Washington University to a sweep of the UAA men’s indoor and outdoor titles for a second year in a row, and the program captured its third-straight UAA outdoor crown for just the second time in school history and the first time since a string of four-straight wins from 1988-91.

Additionally Stiles coached the program to the 2010 UAA men’s cross country title, marking the first time in school history the Bears have swept the UAA men’s cross country, indoor and outdoor championships.

The Washington University men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams return to action on Saturday, April 30, for the Illinois College Twilight Open in Jacksonville, Ill.