Three Tigers Earn USTFCCCA All-America Honors

All-America honors for the 2020 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field season were announced on Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

SEE MORE: USTFCCCA NCAA Division III All-America History

Normal policies dictate that All-America honors are awarded to student-athletes who score any portion of a team point (top-eight in the final of an individual event or as a member of a top-eight placing relay event) at the NCAA Championships.

In lieu of conduction of the national championship this season, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA Division III Executive Committee adopted the following criteria:

• Based on the selected participants for the national championships initially announced by the NCAA on Sunday, March 8, the following will be recognized as All-America for the 2020 Indoor Track & Field season:
  • Individual events: ALL student-athletes declared and initially accepted into their event.
  • Relay events: Members of ALL relays who produced the performance that was declared and initially accepted into their event.

A trio of Wittenberg Tigers earned USTFCCCA All-America honors on Tuesday afternoon, a total of 675 athletes from 161 different institutions. 

Alexis Gray qualified in the only distance race for the Tigers, the women's 800-meter. Her best performance came when she took first place at the NCAC Indoor Track and Field Championship with a time of 2:11.60, which also set a new NCAC Indoor Championship meet record. Gray's first-place finish earned her the NCAC Women's Distance/Middle Distance Athlete of the Year award.

Alexis Johnson and Stevie Plikerd both qualified in the women's long jump after successful indoor seasons. Johnson's season-high of 5.81 meters came at the Joe Banks Invitational at Ohio Northern University on February 1st. Johnson's stellar NCAC Women's Field Athlete of the Year with her first-place finish at the NCAC Indoor Track and Field Championships. Plikerd saw her season-best of 5.59 meters come at the Inaugural Tiger Opener on December 6th.

The crew was lead by Head Coach and Great Lakes Coach of the Year, Paris Hilliard in his fifth year at Wittenberg.