Key Receives Southland Conference Athlete of the Week Honor
1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Southland Conference Release
FRISCO, Texas – Redshirt junior Hunter Key won his first heptathlon competition this past week at the Samford Stand Alone Multi event. The Garrison native started the 2017 Indoor Multi’s season with a bang and the effort landed him Southland Conference recognition, the league announced on Wednesday afternoon.
After the first day of competition, the junior was seeded in fourth with three events still to go. The next day he packed on 2,196 points to his score to finish with a 4825 to overtake Samford and Mississippi State athletes. Key bested his season record from last year in the long jump by four inches with a 20-08.5 foot jump and also came up within one one-hundredth of a second from setting a new personal record for his 60 meter hurdles time.
The heptathlete made his indoor collegiate track debut back in 2015 and placed ninth at the Southland Conference Indoor Championships. Since then, Key has continued to grow and gain experience placing him fifth at the 2016 SLC Indoor Championships, and now he has claimed his first meet after the primary meet of the 2017 Indoor Multi’s season.
Three other student-athletes were tabbed with SLC Athlete of the Week Honors. Central Arkansas’s Sharad Mackey was chosen as the Men’s Track Athlete of the Week. Grace McKenzie, from McNeese, was selected for Women’s Track and Olivia Groeber from Central Arkansas received the Women’s Field Athlete of the Week honor.
The Lumberjacks will next be in action this Friday and Saturday at the Houston Invitational and Multi’s hosted by the University of Houston. Following the meet, a select squad will compete at the prestigious Air Force Team Challenge on Feb. 3.
-SFA-
