2023 CACC Men's T&F Major Award Winners
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (May 18, 2023) – Alec Valle of Georgian Court University has been named the 2023 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Men’s Track Athlete of the Year and Nishorn Pierre of Holy Family University has been voted the 2023 CACC Men’s Field Athlete of the Year for the outdoor season, CACC Commissioner Dan Mara announced on Thursday. Valle and Pierre earned their honors via a vote of the league’s head coaches.
The major CACC Men’s Track & Field individual awards for 2023 went to representatives of five different institutions. Christopher Adekoya of Alliance University was selected as the Track Rookie of the Year, while Starell Hearns of Bloomfield College is the league’s Field Rookie of the Year. Wilmington University head coach Christian Stamm won a vote of the CACC sports information directors to be tapped as the Coach of the Year, and Stamm’s Wildcats were also chosen the recipients of the annual CACC Team Sportsmanship Award.
Valle, a graduate student, won the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runs at the 2023 CACC Championship meet, hosted by Georgian Court on May 6-7. He helped lead the Lions to a runner-up finish in the 12-team event. Valle owns the fastest time by a conference runner this season in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He was also an all-conference performer in cross-country, helping GCU to the 2022 CACC Championship.
Pierre, a sophomore, is the CACC Field Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive season. He was the high jump and triple jump champion at this year’s CACC meet and finished third in the long jump. In the high jump, Pierre provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships after making that trip last season and for the 2023 indoor meet.
Competing in his first CACC Championship meet, Adekoya was also a double-winner, crossing the line first in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. He also ran a leg for Alliance’s 4x400-meter relay team, which finished third. He is tied for the fastest 100-meter time in the CACC this season.
Hearns earns the Field Rookie honor primarily on the strength of his performance in the high jump. He was third in the CACC meet, missing all-conference honors on a tiebreaker. Hearns is tied for the second-best performance among league athletes in the high jump this season, behind only Pierre.
Stamm is a repeat winner of the CACC Coach of the Year award. After guiding Wilmington to a second-place finish in 2022, he saw his Wildcats break through for their first conference championship this year. Wilmington scored 184 points to the 174 of Georgian Court. Wilmington was also chosen by the league’s head coaches as the team that best demonstrated outstanding character and class during the regular season.
The 2023 All-CACC Men’s Outdoor Track & Field teams were determined by the first and second-place finishers, respectively, at the league championship meet. They can be viewed at https://caccathletics.org/sports/track/2022-23/releases/57ChampM.
2023 CACC MEN'S TRACK ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Alec Valle (Georgian Court University)
2023 CACC MEN'S TRACK ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Christopher Adekoya (Alliance University)
2023 CACC MEN'S FIELD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Nishorn Pierre (Holy Family University)
2023 CACC MEN'S FIELD ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Starell Hearns (Bloomfield College)
2023 CACC MEN'S TRACK & FIELD COACH OF THE YEAR
Christian Stamm (Wilmington University)
2023 CACC MEN'S TRACK & FIELD TEAM SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
Wilmington University
ABOUT THE CACC
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference composed of 13 institutions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The member institutions are Alliance University, Bloomfield College, University of Bridgeport, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Dominican (N.Y.) University, Felician University, Georgian Court University, Goldey-Beacom College, Holy Family University, Post University, Thomas Jefferson University, and Wilmington University.