Big Ten Announces Outdoor Track and Field Postseason Awards

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- The Big Ten Conference announced Thursday the 2024 Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field postseason award recipients, as selected by the conference’s head coaches following the conclusion of the NCAA Championships.

Penn State graduate student Cheickna Traore was named Men’s Track Athlete of the Year, while Nebraska junior Tyus Wilson was selected as the Field Athlete of the Year and Minnesota’s Angelos Mantzouranis was named Freshman of the Year.

Michigan junior Savannah Sutherland was selected as the Women’s Track Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive season, while Illinois junior Rose Yeboah claimed Field Athlete of the Year honors and Minnesota’s Zoie Dundon was named Freshman of the Year.

Traore capped off one of the greatest sprint seasons in Penn State history by winning the 200-meter NCAA title with a time of 19.95, the Nittany Lions' first NCAA outdoor champion in a sprint event since 1941. Wilson followed a Big Ten high jump championship with a runner-up result at Hayward Stadium, clearing 2.23m. After winning the conference title in the hammer throw, Mantzouranis finished third at the with a 75.50m toss in his NCAA Championships debut. 

Sutherland, the Big Ten champion in the 400m hurdles, finished second in Oregon with a personal best time of 53.26, improving upon her record-setting performance in the semifinals (54.04) to set the Canadian and U-M standards for the second time in three days. Yeboah became the first Illinois women's high jump national champion with an NCAA Outdoor Championships meet- and school-record leap of 1.97m, a mark that automatically qualified her to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Highlighting a sterling rookie campaign, Dundon dominated the field to win the Big Ten 3000m Steeplechase title by more than 12 seconds.

2024 Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Postseason Honors
Men’s Track Athlete of the Year: Cheickna Traore, Penn State
Men’s Field Athlete of the Year: Tyus Wilson, Nebraska
Men’s Freshman of the Year: Angelos Mantzouranis, Minnesota

Women’s Track Athlete of the Year: Savannah Sutherland, Michigan
Women’s Field Athlete of the Year: Rose Yeboah, Illinois
Women’s Freshman of the Year: Zoie Dundon, Minnesota

Last month the Big Ten announced Coach of the Year honors and Athlete of the Championships recognition following the Conference Outdoor Championships in Ann Arbor, where Minnesota captured the women’s title and Nebraska earned the men’s crown.