Butler's Gardner, Milwaukee's Gretz named Horizon League Outdoor Track and Field Athletes of the Year
June 27, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
INDIANAPOLIS - Junior distance runner Genni Gardner of Butler University and senior thrower Nick Gretz of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have been named the Horizon League's 2007 Outdoor Track and Field Athletes of the Year as voted upon by the League's head coaches, the League office announced Wednesday (June 27).
Gardner (Bramley, United Kingdom/St. Peters) was the lone Horizon League woman to advance to the recent NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif., where she placed 20th in the semifinals of the 5,000-meter run. Last month, she placed 13th at the NCAA Mideast Regional and then extended Butler's streak of NCAA meet participants to eight straight years.
Gardner won the Horizon League title in the 800 meters last month in Indianapolis and was third in the 5,000. She set a personal-best in the 5,000 at the Penn Relays earlier this season with a time of 16:26.82, which was second in school history only to Victoria Mitchell, who won the national title in the steeplechase at the 2005 NCAA Championships.
Gardner follows in the footsteps of Mitchell, who earned back-to-back Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year honors in 2004 and 2005.
Gretz (Two Rivers, Wis./Two Rivers) won the shot put and the discus throw at the Horizon League Outdoor Championships last month and went on to place 22nd in the preliminaries of the discus (171-8) at the NCAA Outdoor Championships as the League's only male entrant. He became the first Milwaukee student-athlete to advance to the national meet since 1998 by placing fifth at the NCAA Mideast Regional.
Gretz, who helped the Panthers to their fourth consecutive League indoor-outdoor sweep, set a League-championships record in the shot put with a throw of 59-5 3/4 after breaking the school record in the event three times during the season (60-7 3/4). Earlier in the season, he was the first Panther to win an event at the prestigious Drake Relays when he took home the shot put title.
For his career, Gretz owns seven League indoor or outdoor titles and was the Field Performer of the Meet at both the 2005 indoor and outdoor championships. He is the first Milwaukee performer to claim Outdoor Athlete of the Year honors since Nick Davis in 2004.
Since the award's establishment in 2003, Butler and Milwaukee have combined to win nine of the ten men's and women's Outdoor Athlete of the Year awards.
The Horizon League Outdoor Track and Field Athletes of the Year are selected by a vote of the League's head coaches, who are not permitted to vote for members of their own teams.
