2021 USTFCCCA Indoor Regional Award Winners

NEW ORLEANS – Approaching the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field National Championships, two Academy of Art track & field student-athletes and three coaches were honored with a total of six regional awards as announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Friday. Indoor West Region selections included Marie-Jeanne Ourega as Women's Field Athlete of the Year, James Young as Men's Track Athlete of the Year, Steve Fuelling as Men's Assistant Coach of the Year, Nkosinza Balumbu as Women's Assistant Coach of the Year, and Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Kevin LaSure as both Men's & Women's Coach of the Year.

"These are great honors for our program and well deserved by our student-athletes and staff," LaSure said. "Coach Fuelling and Coach Balumbu did a great job guiding their groups and getting the most out of them despite the limitations they were faced with. Marie-Jeanne and James did an amazing job capitalizing on their limited competition opportunities they were presented with and it's all a testament to the work they both put in leading up to this Indoor season."

Instantly turning heads in her debut season, Ourega completed the regular season as an Indoor Nationals qualifier ranked among the top four in ART U history in both the indoor long and triple jumps. Second only to multi-time Hall of Famer Vashti Thomas, Ourega's long jump of 19-10.25 (6.05m) at the UIndy Last Chance Meet ranks fifth in the country. Her 40-3.5 (12.28m) mark in the triple jump came at the Indoor Gorilla Classic and settled her in at seventh in NCAA Division II.

Overseeing Ourega's progression, Balumbu earned his first Assistant Coach of the Year award for his contributions as a jumps specialist. Ourega, who ranks seventh in the nation in both horizontal jumps, was a USTFCCCA All-Region honoree in the long jump and triple jump, helping the women's team rank third in West Region.

Picking up right where he left off last year, Young once again qualified for Indoor Nationals after rising to 11th nationally in the mile with a 4:05.06 time from the Indoor Gorilla Classic. The mark followed a day after his anchor leg in the men's 9:45.51 automatically-qualifying distance medley relay which broke the school record, sits third in the country on the year, and ranks top 10 all-time in NCAA Division II history.

Guiding Young and the distance team's success, Fuelling was bestowed his second Assistant Coach of the Year in as many seasons. Young's mile was one of four individual USTFCCCA All-Region honors on the distance side along with the mile from Hudson Lockette plus Elliot Slade and Abdelouakil Mustapha's respective 800m marks, the former which broke the event's program record. The historic distance medley relay saw Slade, Omodiaogbe Oboh, Mustapha, and Young also earn All-Region en route to their automatic qualification to Indoor Nationals.

Adding to a glistening resume, LaSure's two Coach of the Year honors came following the 36 USTFCCCA All-Region performances combining the men's and women's teams. The men had 16 All-Region honors, the most qualifiers for Indoor Nationals in the region, and three top-15 national rankings, including the aforementioned top-three DMR. On the women's side, there were 20 All-Region selections, once again the most qualifiers for Indoor Nationals in the West, and five marks that rank in the top-35 nationally, including Ourega's aforementioned top-five long jump and top-seven triple jump.

These are the first West Region individual awards in the careers of Ourega and Young, the second West Region Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year for Fuelling and the first in Balumbu's career. These are the fourth and fifth West Region Indoor Coach of the Year honors in LaSure's career (2019, 2017, 2016).

The honored athletes and coaches will be in competition at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships coming up next week on March 11-13 in Birmingham, Alabama at the Birmingham Crossplex. More information can be found at the USTFCCCA's National Championships Central page.