SBC Honors
By Ben Anderson, FM88 Sports
Jan. 15, 2025
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) — The Sun Belt Conference announced this afternoon that multiple athletes of Marshall Track & Field cruised the weekly honors awards.
Senior Kylee Mastin earned Sun Belt Conference Women’s Track Athlete of the Week, after winning the mile and 1k race Saturday at the Marshall Alumni Classic. She set a new 1k record with a time of 2:51:30, breaking the previous school record from former runner Abby Herring.
“She has taken on the role of trying to be as best as possible for her,” Marshall Cross Country Coach Caleb Bowen said in an interview with FM88 Sports, Ben Anderson. “That’s one of the biggest transformations for Kylee. She’s gone from maybe being a little more centered on her to centered on what she can do for the team.”
Bowen said that Mastin’s confidence has grown since she transferred from Ball State University in 2021.
“The fact that she was really scared to do longer events when she first came in,” Bowen said. “She was a miler, 800, well now she’s running the 3,000 and she could probably run the 5,000, she’s the Sun Belt Conference Champion in Cross Country. She’s grown to see what her true strengths are and that’s been a developmental process.”
Bowen said that Mastin has been preparing to compete in multiple events to best help the team in the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships next month.
“We came together at the end of the cross-country season, and mapped out the whole track season,” Bowen said. “she’s trying to get used to doubling because at the conference meet, she’s going to have to triple most likely and running a lot of events trying.”
Senior Addison Painter, the transfer from NCAA Division III program Marietta College, won the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Field Athlete of the Week, after breaking the school record for the men’s long jump with a distance of 7.58 meters (24.9 feet).
“To that moment, we’ve (Painter and coaches) have been working really hard,” Painter said during an interview with FM88 Sports, Ben Anderson. “Since we got here in August, it’s been a lot of hard work. I think it’s something that me and the entire staff knew was going to happen eventually, but that big of a mark is exciting.
The 7.58 mark in the men’s long jump is ranked 5th best in the nation for the two-time NCAA Division III All-American.
“The mentality and work ethic (are) what really drives him,” Marshall Director of Track & Field and Cross-Country Keith Roberts said in an interview with FM88 Sports Ben Anderson. “He comes in here every day; he listens to everything we say. He tries to critique himself and improve, tries to help his team by reiterating the things that we (coaches) say.”
Graduate Student Rebecca Merritt won the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Field Athlete of the Week. Merritt won the women’s weight throws and shot put, on Saturday.
Merritt holds second mark in the weight throw and second in the shot put in the conference. The two-time NCAA East Regional Qualifier has won in all four of her events this season.
Sophomore Peter Oliveira won the Sun Belt Conference 60-meter hurdles Saturday. Oliveira won his race with a time of 8:36.
Marshall Track & Field travels to Nashville Tennessee this weekend for its first road trip in the Vanderbilt Invitational. The meet starts Friday with the pole vault and concludes Saturday with men’s 4×400.