The Big Ten announced that Illinois sophomore Ashley Spencer won the 2013 Big Ten Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year and Athlete of the Championships on Tuesday. Spencer received the awards for an outstanding season with the Illini and a performance at the recently concluded Big Ten Championships that included winning three titles last weekend. Her performance last weekend led her to an astounding 12th Big Ten title in just two years of collegiate competition at Illinois.
Although she has been honored for her performances at the championships, this is the first time Spencer has been named Track Athlete of the Year. She put up brilliant performances in the 200 meter and 400 meter individual events to earn that spot and last weekend was no different.
Spencer separated herself from the field last weekend by claiming titles in the 200 meter and 400 meter dashes and joined teammates for another title in the 1600 meter relay and a second place finish in the 400 meter relay. The 200m and 400m crowns were a defense of her titles from last year’s competition but it’s the method to recapturing those crowns that impressed the most. With a season second-best of 23.30 seconds in the 200m and 52.27 in the 400m, Spencer showed that she is in peak condition at the perfect time. Her herculean performance in her second ever Big Ten Championships led to her second Athlete of the Championships award and helped her team to finish in second in the conference.
This award sees Spencer become the first Illinois athlete to claim athlete of the year since distance runner Angela Bizzari in 2010. In doing so, Spencer has also joined an exclusive club of seven Illini who have won the award. Capturing the Athlete of Championships for the second straight year has also put her in another elite club on consecutive winners. She is the second Illini to do so in school history, preceded by her current coach Tonja Buford-Bailey in 1992 and 1993.
The accolades keep rolling in for Spencer, and they don’t seem to be stopping any time soon. She has dominated Big Ten track for the two-year stint she has had and this burgeoning career appears to only be getting better. This IAAF world junior champion still has a lot more to come for Illinois fans and we are yet to have uncovered half of that. Spencer’s second year with the Illini is still ongoing with regional and national championships still upcoming in the schedule, and another national title or two could be in the works.
