Newby named OVC Athlete of the Week

Nicholas Newby capped off a spectacular weekend in Kansas with an Ohio Valley Conference Athlete of the Week award, announced Wednesday by the league. The redshirt senior from Burleson, Texas broke his own school record in the 800 meters during the Gorilla Classic in Pittsburg, Kan., then helped the men's distance medley relay team set a new program mark.
 
Newby shattered his own school record in the 800 meters, finishing second while clocking a time of 1:50.51, then teamed up with Chase Peterson, Devin Stevens, and Andrew Payton to take down the program record in the Distance Medley Relay, where the Trojans also finished second and turned in a time of 9:36.00, besting the previous mark by more than seven seconds. Little Rock's DMR team currently holds the fourth-fastest time in the nation.
 

"Extremely deserving for Nick. He had a career day at Pitt State leading off the DMR with a 2:57 split then breaking the school record in the 800 along with two of his teammates." – Little Rock head coach J.P. Behnke

 
The Little Rock Men's Indoor team also received its highest ranking ever this week, coming in at No. 51 in the latest USTFCCCA index, besting the previous high ranking of 59^th. The Trojans are off this weekend before heading to the OVC Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. on Feb. 25-26.
 

"It's exciting to see this group get recognized for all their hard work this year. This should give a little extra confidence going into the conference championship next week.  A large contributor to the ranking is the Men's DMR sitting fourth in the country but we also have our men's 60 meter squad and high jump squad ranked in the top 15."

 
Andrew Payton will compete individually Friday at the Arkansas Qualifier in Fayetteville, attempting to break the four-minute mark in the men's mile race.