NEW ORELANS, La. -- Montana Tech graduate student Abby Clark continues to pile up the awards in the twilight of her collegiate track & field career.
The most decorated field athlete in the history of Oredigger women's track field, Clark added to that tally Thursday with the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NAIA West Region field athlete of the year honor.
Clark, a Fort Benton product, heads into next week's NAIA indoor championship meet ranked second in the country in the pentathlon, sixth in the high jump, and 16th in the long jump. She will compete in all three at the national meet March 5-7 in Gainesville, Fla.
Her 3,576-point pentathlon score at the Riverfront Invitational & Multis in Spokane, Wash., won the Frontier Conference title, propelling Clark to the conference's indoor field MVP award and helping Montana Tech to third place at last week's conference championship meet.
During that pentathlon, Clark set a new program record and personal best with her 1.70-meter high jump, which ranks sixth on the NAIA season leaderboard and notched the NAIA 'A' qualifying standard in the event. She also established a personal best in the long jump this season, leaping 5.78m on her way to the 'A' standard and the No. 16 mark in the nation.
She also scored points in the 200m dash and 60m hurdles at the conference meet in Brookings, S.D.
Clark is a five-time NAIA All-American, earning the honor thrice outdoors in the heptathlon and twice indoors in the pentathlon. She became Montana Tech's first-ever College Sports Communicators Academic All-American last spring.
She becomes the first Montana Tech woman ever to earn regional field athlete of the year honors from the USTFCCCA.
Clark will be one of seven Oredigger women to compete at the NAIA championship meet.
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