NAMPA, Idaho — Northwest Nazarene's
Payton Lewis added one more accolade this week to an impressive list of awards he racked up in his first indoor track and field season.
The Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion in the pole vault added GNAC Freshman of the Year honors for indoor track and field, as the league announced its postseason honors on Tuesday.
Along with winning the GNAC title in the pole vault by clearing 16 feet, 11 inches, Lewis was fourth in both the men's 60-meter hurdles (8.31 seconds) and fourth in the long jump (23-0), individually scoring 20 points for the Crusaders.
His mark in the long jump was one of three new school records he set this winter. He also set the NNU record in the pole vault, clearing 17-0.75 — which qualified Lewis for his first NCAA Division II National Championship meet where he placed ninth — and in the heptathlon, scoring 5,075 points.
Lewis also was named to the USTFCCCA West All-Region team in each of those events earlier this month and was named the West Region Field Athlete of the Year in indoor track and field.
The freshman from Nampa Christian High School is now one meet into his first outdoor season with the Crusaders and will be in action on the track again next weekend, April 3-4, when NNU heads to the Bay Area to compete in the Stanford Invitational and the San Francisco State Distance Carnival.