AMHERST, N.Y. - John Jaworski (Naperville, Ill.) of Daemen University has been named the East Coast Conference Men's Track Athlete of the Week for competitions held Jan. 22-28. The announcement of ECC weekly awards was made this afternoon in the league's weekly sport report.
Jaworski becomes just the second runner in program history to collected ECC Men's Track Athlete of the Week honors during the indoor season, and the first since Brett Smith became the first-ever to earn the honor back in February of 2013. Jaworski is now one of only six athletes in the history of the Daemen men's track and field program to garner a weekly award from the ECC during the indoor season. He joins past honorees Brett Smith (Track Athlete of the Week: Feb. 4-10, 2013), Mark Fox (Field Athlete of the Week: Feb. 4-10, 2013), Robert Ralyea (Field Athlete of the Week: Feb. 10-16, 2014), Alex Reid (Field Athlete of the Week: Jan. 26 - Feb. 1, 2015) and Sullivan Keller (Field Athlete of the Week: Jan. 20-26, 2020).
A graduate student, Jaworski won the 60-meter dash and placed second in the 200-meter dash at the RIT Invitational this past Friday. He opened the night by running the fastest time in the 60-meter preliminaries field of 22 with a personal best time of 7.20 second and went on to place first in the finals and establish another personal best time of 7.11 seconds, which ranks eighth in the ECC this season. Jaworski also placed second out of 29 sprinters in the 200-meter dash with a personal-best time of 23.18 seconds, which ranks as the eighth best time in program history. Converted to a 22.78, that time also ties for sixth in the ECC this season. Additionally, his 60-meter time ties for 16th in the NCAA East Region.
Jaworski spent four years with the Daemen men's volleyball team before joining the track & field team this year. He has appeared in three of Daemen's four meets this indoor season, competing in the 60-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the 300-meter dash and the long jump. He ran the 300 meters for the first time during the Utica Holiday Classic last month and placed third out of 12 runners with a school-record time of 37.25 seconds. The effort eclipsed the previous standard of 37.64 seconds which was set the previous weekend by sophomore Adam Kamagate (Hilton, N.Y.) during the Houghton December Classic.
In addition, sophomore Becca Schultz (Grand Island, N.Y.) was named to the ECC Indoor Track & Field honor roll. Schultz took part in four individual events at the RIT Invitational. She qualified for the finals in the 60-meter dash after placing second out of 10 entrants in the preliminary round with a time of 8.22 seconds, narrowly missing her personal best time of 8.16 seconds she set at the Houghton December Classic earlier this season. She would go on to place first in the finals with a time of 8.32 seconds. She then qualified for the finals in the 60-meter hurdles after placing second out of 10 entrants in the preliminary round with a personal best time of 9.54 seconds. She would establish a new program record and place first in the finals with a time of 9.41 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 9.47 seconds set by Sam Carro at the 2018 Highlander Invitational. Schultz also placed ninth out of 12 in the long jump with a leap of 4.50 meters and third out of six entrants in the triple jump (10.13 meters).
The Daemen track & field teams are back in action Saturday (Feb. 3) when they take part in the Brockport Multi Invitational hosted by SUNY Brockport.
Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
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