Track & Field | 3/17/2022 5:44:00 PM
EAST GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T track and field added to their many accomplishments on Thursday.
Three Aggies came away with United States Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) indoor track and field regional awards.
Duane Ross, A&T's director of track and field programs, earned Southeast Region men's coach of the year.
His son, junior Randolph Ross Jr., picked up Southeast Region men's athlete of the year. Ron Garner is the Southeast Region men's assistant coach of the year.
Ross's coaching career has been fabulous at A&T. Ross is the reigning national outdoor track and field coach of the year. In addition, Ross earned his third regional coach of the year award on the indoor side. He was the 2019 Southeast Region women's coach of the year, and in 2020, he secured Southeast Region men's coach of the year.
Ross led the Aggie men to national runner-up status last week at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala. It was a historic run as the Aggies had the highest finish of any historically black college and or university (HBCU) in NCAA history.
He helped Ross Jr. (400 meters) and sophomore
Javonte Harding (200M) to event national championships in Birmingham. He sent seven male athletes to the championships as freshman
Leonard Mustari finished second nationally in the 60 hurdles.
The Aggies finished third at the Big South Conference indoor championships earlier this season, where the Aggies decided not to run some of their top athletes in certain events. However, they still came away with four event conference championships. Ross did win Big South women's indoor track and field coach of the year after leading the Lady Aggies to the conference title.
As an outdoor coach, Ross claimed the Southeast Region men's and women's coach of the year awards in 2021.
Ross Jr. has been just as dominant as his dad. Ross captured his fourth event national championship last week when he won the 400M with a time of 44.62. It was the third-fastest 400M indoor time in world history. Ross Jr. also eclipsed the fastest 400M time in the world for the third time in 2022.
He finished the season undefeated in the 400M, and he is the only collegiate athlete in history with two-sub 45-second 400M indoor times to his credit. In his career, Ross Jr. also has national titles in the indoor 4x400, the outdoor 4x400 and the outdoor 400M.
A&T will now turn its attention to the outdoor season, where they will start the season this weekend at High Point University. HPU will host the Aggies and other schools at the Bill Davidson Memorial at Vert Stadium, March 18-19.
Heading into the outdoor season, Ross wants full participation if the Aggies are to realize their dreams of a national championship on the men's and women's side.
"That's what is beautiful about this group. We have some relentless people," said Ross. "But it's a sub-group within the whole team. We can't keep going to the same well. We can't keep going to the well with the same people and expect them to pull us through. We can't have the people we depend on being at nationals sitting at home."
