Mark Elliston guided the women's track and field team to its second conference championship this spring.
“It’s a great honor to be recognized again by my peers as well as a testimony to our team,” said Elliston. “The young ladies did an outstanding job of training and working hard in order to accomplish our goal of defending our (CAA) championship. I also want to give thanks to my coaching staff, Nick Polk and Shannon Popp, for their tireless efforts all year, as well as the administration, Dr. Leo Lambert, Dave Blank and Faith Shearer for all their support.”
Elon scored 193 points at the CAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships – the most ever at the CAA meet since 2005 – as the Phoenix captured the league title on its home track. The Phoenix also had four athletes win five individual league titles with Jayna Coyle (triple jump), Emily Dixon (heptathlon), Jen Esposito (400-meter hurdles) and Sydney Griffin (200-meter dash and 100-meter hurdles) garnering medalist honors. Elon also tallied league championships in the 4×100-meter and the 4×400-meter relays with both units setting new school records in the process. Overall, the Phoenix had 15 athletes receive All-CAA honors at the league championships.
During his 10 seasons at Elon, Elliston has seen 19 athletes qualify for the NCAA East Preliminaries, 37 individuals claim conference championships and has guided 139 performers to all-conference honors in both indoor and outdoor track competition.
Distance runner Shelby Cuddeback represented the Phoenix on the CAA All-Academic team. A biochemistry major with a double minor in psychology and neuroscience, the Attleboro, Mass., native earned All-CAA honors with a third-place finish in the 10,000-meters at the league championships with a personal-record time of 35:30.92 – the second-fastest performance in school history.