Rosen Daniel named Southland Conference Track Athlete of the Week

Track & Field | 2/9/2015 5:31:00 PM

ABILENE - Junior Rosen Daniel Monday was voted by the Southland Conference Sports Information Directors as its Male Track Athlete of the Week in recognition of his excellent weekend of competition at the New Mexico Track and Field Classic.

Daniel is the second-straight Wildcat to receive this citation in as many weeks, joining classmate Jessica James. He also is fourth male track and field student-athlete to win this award - and first this season - since ACU rejoined the Southland Conference last season. He joins a list that already includes hammer thrower Baptiste Kerjean (Jan. 29 and April 16, 2014), multi-athlete Luke Woods (Feb. 5, 2014) and sprinter Johnathan Farquharson (Feb. 19, 2014). 

An offseason transfer from Coppin State, Daniel last weekend placed fourth in the 200-meter dash, third in the 400m and fifth with the 4x400 relay; all while going against competitors from Arizona, Arkansas, BYU, Fresno State, LSU, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Stephen F. Austin, Texas, Texas Tech, UCLA, Utah and Washington. 

His altitude-adjusted 400m mark of 46.89 (46.78 non-adjusted) is tops in the Southland Conference going into next week's indoor championships (Feb. 16-17) at the Birmingham CrossPlex. It also ranked him as the third-fastest performer in ACU history behind behind Kempa Busby's 46.54 from 1998 and Robert Guy's 46.66 from 1995.

Finishing ahead of Daniel in the 400m were unattached competitor Aldrich Bailey (45.96), a two-time World Junior Championships gold medalist, and Zack Bilderback (46.50) of the Texas Longhorns who was an All-America in this event last winter.

Daniel along with teammates Devan Brown, Osei Allyene-Forte and Deandre McBride won their heat in the 4x400  with the 10th fastest time in ACU indoor history of 3:12.35 (3:12.79 altitude adjusted). They are the first relay to crack the top-10 performance list in this event since January of 2009 when the team of Des Jackson, Harold Jackson, Jordan Johnson and Raymond Radway did so at Texas Tech.

ACU's 4x400 relay is second only to Stephen F. Austin in the Southland Conference this indoor season (3:09.51).

Competing in Friday's 200m finals, Daniel crossed fourth with a personal record of 21.27 (21.20 non-adjusted) against a field of 66 competitors spread across 13 heats. He was the winner of his heat by .45 seconds and was only beat out by LSU's Aaron Ernest (20.66), South Plains Jereem Richards (21.06) and Texas Tech's Trevor Mackey (21.16).
Daniel's mark additionally was the second fastest in ACU indoor history as former Wildcat all-America Desmond Jackson still holds the record of 21.03, a time which placed him second at the 2011 NCAA DII Championships.

2014-15 ACU Southland Conference Athletes of the Week
Sept. 1 - Parker McKenzie (Football)
Sept. 9 - Diana Garcia-Muñoz (Cross Country)
Sept. 15 - Parker McKenzie (Football)
Sept. 30 - Alyssa Gerner (Soccer)
Oct. 14 - Diana Garcia-Muñoz (Cross Country)
Nov. 3 - Jonathan Epps (Football)
Nov. 17 - De'Andrew Brown (Football - Offensive), Justin Stephens (Football - Defensive), Nik Grau (Football - Special Teams) 
Dec. 1 - Whitney West (Women's Basketball)
Jan. 20 - Kaysie Hermsdorf (Women's Tennis)
Feb. 3 - Brittney Reed (Women's Tennis)
Feb. 4 - Jessica James (Women's Track and Field)
Feb. 9 - Rosen Daniel (Men's Track and Field)