Mallett Races to First-Team All-America Honors

Mar. 12, 2016

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — University of Iowa track and field junior Aaron Mallett collected first-team All-America honors for the second-consecutive year in the men’s 60-meter hurdles at the 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships inside the Birmingham CrossPlex on Saturday.

Mallett (7.70) placed third in the event, improving on his sixth-place finish from a year ago.

“He’s had a tremendous indoor season and I’m really proud of him,” UI director of track and field Joey Woody said. “He was ready to put up a great performance, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to show the world what he was capable of doing today. [LSU’s Jordan Moore] was impeding him the whole race and was disqualified for running in Aaron’s lane. Today is extra motivation for the outdoor season.”

Mallett is the highest-placer in the event at an NCAA meet in school history. In addition to earning All-America status, his 2016 indoor campaign includes a school record and a Big Ten championship.

“This season was a nice building block off of last year,” Mallett said. “For me to come out and repeat as an All-American and move up a couple of spots is just huge because indoors isn’t really my strong suit. I gained a lot of confidence this indoor season and that’s the biggest thing I’ll carry into the outdoor season.”

The Hawkeyes concluded the Championships with a promising performance from the first-ever women’s 1,600-meter relay in program history to qualify for an NCAA indoor meet.

En route to gathering second-team All-America honors, the quartet of senior MonTayla Holder, freshman Briana Guillory, and juniors Alexis Hernandez and Elexis Guster raced to ninth place in 3:33.03, just 0.1 seconds off their school record, while finishing ahead of Big Ten contenders Ohio State (10th/3:33.72) and Purdue (11th/3:34.12).

“They fought hard and had a great season this whole year,” Woody said. “They’ve gotten better every single week, and they ran close to their school record on a banked track compared to an oversize track like at the Big Ten Championships. All the girls ran great and put themselves in position to get top eight. Unfortunately, we missed first-team honors by one spot.

“We’re going into the outdoor season with the expectation to win the Big Ten championship and to get back to the national meet. It’s an exciting future for them.”

The University of Iowa track and field team kicks off the outdoor season at the Baldy Castillo Invitational in Tempe, Arizona, from March 18-19.