KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The track athlete of the meet is also the national athlete of the week.
Montana Tech senior
Morgan McClernan landed the NAIA's men's outdoor track athlete of the week honor, the national office announced Wednesday, just days after he helped the Orediggers to an improbable comeback victory at the Frontier Conference championship meet.
The Butte native won the 110-meter hurdles over the weekend, posting record-breaking times in both the prelims and finals of the event. His winning time of 13.97 seconds was an NAIA 'A' qualifying standard and the first race in Oredigger history under the 14-second mark.
He also ran on Tech's championship 4x100m relay with
Aidan Dorr,
Matthew Moreni, and
Jaxon Allery and took second in the 400m hurdles and fourth in the 400m dash.
McClernan then helped clinch the meet for Montana Tech, which trailed by more than 40 points early in Sunday's Day 2. After huge performances late in the discus and 5,000m run, he anchored the 4x400m relay alongside
Adam Schrader,
Carter Henke, and
Konnor Gregerson to take second place in the race and win the meet.
The Frontier Conference named McClernan its men's track athlete of the meet and athlete of the week for his efforts. He becomes the second Oredigger athlete this season to win an NAIA national weekly award;
Cade VanVleet won the men's indoor field athlete of the week award February 18.
McClernan and the Orediggers will race one last time before nationals Friday at the Tom Gage Classic, hosted by Montana State University in Bozeman.
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