Two all-conference performers in the vault recognized for success athletically and academically
Junior Robin Taylor and sophomore Nick Stearns of the Eastern Washington University track and field team have been selected as the EWU Athletic Department Scholar-Athletes of the Month.
This award recognizes the athletic and academic success of student-athletes, based primarily on performances turned in during the month prior.
Stearns has maintained a 3.50 cumulative grade point average as a biology major. Taylor, a business major, holds a 3.10 GPA.
Both athletes are coming off second-place finishes in the pole vault at the 2013 Big Sky Outdoor Championships on May 10-11 in Forest Grove, Ore. Taylor also moved on to the NCAA Division I West Preliminary Rounds in Austin, Texas, on May 22-23.
More on Taylor
For the second-consecutive outdoor season, EWU teammate Keisa Monterola and Taylor led a one; two sweep for Eastern in the pole vault at the BSC Championships. Taylor cleared a season-best height of 12-11 1/2 to finish as the runner-up behind Monterola.
In 2012, that same duo claimed first and second at the conference meet, when both cleared a mark of 13-7 1/2. That clearance was a personal best for Taylor and ranks second in school history only behind Monterola (14-0). It was also the third-best mark in Big Sky Conference history outdoors.
The Blaine High School graduate has also moved on to the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in 2012 and 2013. She had a jump of 12-8 at the meet this year to tie for 22nd overall.
Indoors, Taylor’s best vault of 12-9 1/2 came at the Idaho Vandal Indoor back in February, a mark that ranks fourth all-time at Eastern.
The Blaine, Wash., native has scored points for the Eagles in all six of the Big Sky meets she’s competed in thus far, totaling up 25.5 to this point.
More on Stearns
Stearns, the lone male pole vaulter on EWU’s roster, put in the second all-conference performance of his young career at the 2013 BSC Championships, clearing the bar at 16-3 1/2 to place second.
A week earlier at the Idaho Vandal Jamboree, he eclipsed the 16-foot mark for the first time, jumping 16-6 3/4 to rank fourth in school history.
The Pahrump Valley High School (Nevada) graduate also had an all-conference performance in his first conference meet as an Eagle, when the freshman at the time cleared an indoor personal best of 15-11 to place third. That mark sits third all-time at Eastern, only trailing Todd Freitag (16-5, 1989) and school-record holder Ben Cogdill (16-8, 2009).
He has also competed in the hurdles for Eastern, with personal bests in the 55 hurdles (8.10), 60 hurdles (8.75) and 110 hurdles (15.88).
The Pahrump, Nev., native, like Taylor, has scored for Eastern in each of the Big Sky meets he’s competed in, accumulating 19 points so far in his career. Along with his second and third-place finishes, he was also fifth indoors this year and eight outdoors during the 2012 season.
Stearns has been named to the Big Sky All-Academic team three times and will be named to his fourth for this spring.
From: http://www.goeags.com/genrel/releases/13genathJune4SA_Taylor_Stearns
