With the 2018 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the books, the AAC today announced the recipients of the meet’s Most Outstanding Performance Awards with University of Cincinnati’s Loretta Blaut earning the women’s field honor. The awards are given to the student-athletes who record the highest-ranking marks on the NCAA performance lists during the AAC Championships meet with Blaut’s NCAA-leading clearance in the high jump ranking the highest among all women’s field event marks recorded over the weekend at the meet held at Gettler Stadium on the UC campus.
ALL A-BLOUT WINNING
Blaut has put together one of the best seasons in Bearcats history to date as the local product has continued to claim crowns and rewrite the record books. At the 2018 AAC meet over the weekend, Blaut entered the competition at 1.70m and was clean through the first four bars she attempted to clear. Then, at 1.82m, she needed a third-attempt clearance to stay in the competition. From there, she cleared 1.85m on her second attempt to eventually claim the crown, a mark that ranked her fifth on the weekend’s Top 10 marks (according to the USTFCCCA). From there, she chose to go after 1.88m (6-02.00) and cleared that on her second attempt to break the school record of 1.85m she just cleared, a mark that tied her with Renee Hein (2007) for the top mark. After clearing her latest PR, she took aim at 1.90m and nearly cleared it. All told, her 1.88m clearance not only is a school record, but also goes down as a conference record, a meet record and a Gettler Stadium record.
SWEPT AWAY
Not only did Blaut sweep the high jump titles this year in the AAC, she also swept the MOP awards for women’s field as she earned the indoor crown as well. Indoors, she cleared 1.87m (6-01.50) to not only win her second indoor crown in a row, but also tie Hein’s school record. Her clearance was the fifth-best mark of the weekend in women’s high jump and set her up nicely for the NCAA Championships where she finished as the national runner-up following a seven-round jump-off to break the tie for the win.
NEXT UP
The Bearcats are awaiting word on whom will head to Tampa next Thursday through Saturday to compete in the NCAA East Preliminary Round. The Top 48 individuals in each event will compete for a chance to advance to Eugene, Ore., for the NCAA Finals.
2018 AAC Most Outstanding Award Winners – Outdoor
Women
Track – Susan Aneno (UConn)
Field – Loretta Blaut (Cincinnati)
Men
Track – Austin Corley (Wichita State)
Field – Aaron True (Wichita State)