UCF sprinter Aurieyall Scott was named as the Conference USA Track Athlete of the Week on Tuesday. The Knights also continued to rank among the nation’s top 25, checking in at No. 12 on Tuesday’s USTFCCCA poll.
Scott measured up against world-class competition last weekend at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic in Gainesville. She led the Knights in the 100 meters with a first-place finish and season-best time of 11.27 (+0.9), ascending to No. 8 among the NCAA this season. The Greenbelt, Md., native shined against a field that included 2011 USA champion Shalonda Solomon and 2008 World Championships bronze medalist and two-time Olympian Tahesia Harrigan-Scott.
She later blazed to a wind-aided 22.73 (+2.6) for her fastest season-opening 200-meter race. With the fourth-best time in the NCAA this year, she finished runner-up to seven-time Olympic medalist and nine-time World Championships medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown, who clocked the new all-conditions world-best time of 2013 (22.18).
This award marks Scott’s fourth-career conference athlete of the week distinction (indoor and outdoor) and her third of 2013. UCF has won four of the five weekly awards handed out so far in the outdoor season.
The Knights are the only Conference USA team present in the national team rankings and are second only to Florida (No. 6) among programs in the state. Texas A&M edged Kansas for the No. 1 spot and is followed by Arizona, LSU and Arkansas in the top five.
Coupled with the outdoor season, UCF has not fallen out of the top 25 dating to April 26, 2011. Moreover, UCF currently boasts eight marks that stand among the NCAA’s top 20 in their respective categories this year.
UCF travels next to the Arkansas Invitational on April 26-27. The trip marks the Knights’ return to Fayetteville for the first time since Scott became the NCAA 60-meter champion and 200-meter runner-up and Freeman earned two bronze medals at the 2013 Indoor Championships.
UCF in the NCAA Rankings
Athlete, Event, Mark, Rank