Louisville Women's Track and Field Receives Honors -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

FORREST NAMED ACC INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD SCHOLAR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR.

Ah, the lick to have the writing assignment today here at Cardinal Couple, when there are no UofL women's athletics results to report, and not wanting to steal our other writers' headlines for laater this week. 

Louisville women's track and field probably doesn't get enough coverage here. Let's talk about some of the great academic honorrs they received from the ACC. 

Later on today, Dana Evans will hold a presser about the WNBA Draft. Some Cardinal Volleyball fans (including our own Jeff McAdams) are on their way to Omaha for the NCAA Tournament. Lacrosse has a huge weekend of matches against Syracuse coming up and Softball entertains Duke, while womens' soccer brings in Wake Forest. 

As we transition out of Louisville WBB and move forward in our spring sports coverage, let's use today to take a look at Louisville women's track and field

Makenli Forrest, a redshirt junior out of the Woodwaard Academy in Ellenwood, GA has received the ACC Track and Fieldd Scholar Athlete of the Year honors. She has maintained a 3.6 GPA during her time at Louisville -- and was also named  the ACC Field performer of the year for 2021. Her major is Exercise Science.

What is it that she does so well?  Makenli participates in throws for Louisville and her areas of specialty are the weight throw and the shot put.  She claimed the gold medal title in the weight throw at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships back on March 11th. He toss of 23.26 meters also broke the Louisville record of 22.76, set by D'Ana McCarty back in 2010. Forrest's toss was the best of any in the 2021 season. 

Louisville has had a long history of top throwers in Women's Track and Field. In addition to McCarty, remember Emmonnie Henderson? She set many records at Louisville from 2013-18 for the Cards in the shot and discus field events. She also played a little basketball at Louisville, as well. 

The NCAA record was set back in 2007, with a toss of 25.56. 

In addition to Forrest, several other Louisville women's track and field student-athletes earned All-Academic honors: 

-- Haley Hudson  (Williamstown, KY) This thrower was naked to the NCAA All-American Second Team and had made the Louisville Athletic Director's Honor Roll 11 times, the Dean's List seven times and is a six-time Red and Black Scholar. 

-- Gabriela Leon (Grand Rapids, MI) A Cardinal pole vaulter, Gabriela is a two time ACC Academic team selection and has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll seven times and four times to the Dean's List and Red and Black Scholar list. 

-- Purity Sanga (Kapsabet, Kenya) Purity is a distance runner and transferred to Louisville from Tennessee Tech last season. She earned Athletic Director's Honor Roll and Red and Black Scholar honors as well. She earned a bronze medal in the ACC 5000m run

-- Auriane Viola (Schiltigheim, France) earned all-conference second team honors with a career-best mark in the pole vault to finish fifth in the ACC Championships. The marketing major is a two-time Red & Black Scholar and Dean's List honoree and has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll three times.

-- Aliyah Welter (Monticello, Ill.) earned 2021 NCAA All-American second team honors in pole vault. The junior tied a school record with a vault of 4.32m (14-2) to place second in the 2021 ACC Indoor Championships, earning first team all-conference honors. The exercise science/sport administration major and two-time Dean's Scholar honoree, has been named to the Athletic Director's honor roll five times and is a three-time Red & Black Scholar.

Congratulations to these stellar UofL student athletes and their coaches. !!

paulie