• All-Time OVC Male Athlete of the Year Award Winners

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Eastern Illinois senior distance runner Dustin Hatfield has been selected as the Ohio Valley Conference Male Athlete of the Year for 2021-22 in voting by the league's athletics directors and communications directors.
 
The OVC Female Athlete of the Year will be announced on Thursday.

Hatfield made a clean sweep of running awards this year, being named OVC Athlete of the Year in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field.

In the fall he led the Panthers to the OVC Cross Country Championship, winning the race by 18 seconds with an 8K time of 24:31.5. He would go on to place 18th at the NCAA Midwest Regional to earn a bid to the NCAA Championship, becoming just the third EIU individual to achieve the feat. He would place 77th at the National Championship, running the second-fastest 10K time in school history (29:59.9).

At the OVC Indoor Track & Field Championships, Hatfield swept both distance races, winning the 3,000 and 5,000 meter runs. He would help EIU place second at the event by scoring 20 total points by himself. During the season he set the school record in the 3,000 meter run (8:01.54).

He continued those winning ways during the outdoor season, again sweeping the two distance races at the OVC Outdoor Championships, winning the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and helping EIU to a second-place team finish. During the outdoor season, Hatfield set the school record in both of those events, becoming the first runner in school history to record a sub-14:00 minute 5,000 meter time, setting the new mark at the NC State Raleigh Relays (13:53.21). He would later set the 10,000 meter record at the Mt. SAC Relays (28:41.62), becoming the first runner in school history with a sub-29:00 minute 10K. Hatfield will run at the NCAA West Regional in the 10k, where he currently ranks 26th nationally.

Hatfield is the fifth different EIU student-athlete to be named OVC Male Athlete of the Year, joining Henry Domercant (2001-02), Kyle O'Brien (2002-03), Erik Lora (2012-13) and Jimmy Garoppolo (2013-14).
 
Other male nominees for the award included Austin Peay graduate football athlete Johnathon Edwards, Belmont senior golfer Evan Davis, Morehead State fifth-year golfer Joe Muschong, Murray State senior basketball player KJ Williams, Southeast Missouri junior track athlete Shea DeGraaf, Tennessee State graduate track athlete R'Lazon Brumfield, Tennessee Tech senior outfielder Jason Hinchman and UT Martin senior running back Peyton Logan.

The OVC first gave out a Male Athlete of the Year award in 1977.