2024 USTFCCCA Outdoor Regional Award Winners

NEW ORLEANS – Following a memorable Outdoor Nationals for both, two Academy of Art track & field student-athletes gained regional recognition as announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Monday. Outdoor West Region Track Athlete of the Year selections featured the Urban Knights' tandem of Juvonna Cornette on the women's side and Shareez Hamm for the men.

A two-time All-American at the end of her first indoor season with ART U, Cornette quickly elevated herself among the top sprinters not only in the West Region in 2024, but in Academy of Art program history by the end of her outdoor campaign. The native of Guyana was the busiest Urban Knight on the final day of Outdoor Nationals, placing fifth in the 100m dash, sixth in the 200m dash, and fourth in the 4x100m relay all after an All-American effort in the 4x400m relay the prior day helped make her become a six-time All-American in just her first year in the red and black. Cornette could be found among the West Region's top six in all events in which she competed.

After matching or bettering the Outdoor Nationals 100m dash provisional standard in nine of her 10 tries, Cornette's 11.43 on Mar. 29 at the Texas Relays had her inside the country's top 15 at the end of the regular season and she would go on to best that time with a new program record 11.34 at Outdoor Nationals, running a wind-legal 11.39 two days prior as well. Also putting herself second in ART U history behind only multi-time Hall of Famer Vashti Thomas historically with a 23.17 in the 200m dash that came in a windy prelim at the PacWest Championships on Apr. 26, Cornette delivered her fastest wind-legal time of 23.22 to make the podium at Outdoor Nationals. For all her success individually, the Interior Architecture & Design major also served crucial legs of the Knights' 4x400m and 4x100m relays, contributing to the program record 3:38.36 at the PacWest Championships and 44.50 (third in ART U history) at the Franson Last Chance Meet. Along with her national accolades, Cornette was a PacWest Champion in both the 100m and 4x400m relay as well as a three USTFCCCA All-Region selection.

Following his sixth and seventh career All-American honors plus USTFCCCA Indoor West Region Track Athlete of the Year honors in his final indoor season, Hamm ended his outdoor run with quite the exclamation mark, becoming the 2024 National Champion in the 400m hurdles. That feat combined with a top-four finish in the 4x400m relay, his ninth All-American honor to date, and top-11 result in the 4x100m relay after he completed the regular season ranked top 13 in all three events (top four in the West Region in each).

Going into Outdoor Nationals as one of just seven NCAA DII hurdlers to run sub-51.00 this year, Hamm impressively improved upon his fifth-place regular season ranking with a new personal record 49.97 (second in ART U history) for the title. He joined his teammates in running the second-fastest 4x400m time in program history (3:08.48) that same day to better the 3:08.56 mark that had made them PacWest Champions and new meet record-holders. En route to his accomplishments in the season's final month, the Photography major was a two-time PacWest Track Athlete of the Week (Mar. 19, Apr. 23), three-time USTFCCCA All-Region, and a PacWest Champion in the 4x100m relay as well. Additionally, just four days ago, Hamm was named PacWest Track Athlete of the Year for the second time in his career.

While this is the first USTFCCCA Regional Athlete of the Year honor for Cornette in her career, it is the second time Hamm has earned such an award in his career after his aforementioned 2024 indoor selection.