• All-Time OVC Female Athlete of the Year Award Winners
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Eastern Illinois graduate student distance runner
Lindsey Carlson has been selected as the Ohio Valley Conference Female Athlete of the Year for 2021-22 in voting by the league's athletics directors and communications directors.
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She joins teammate Dustin Hatfield, who was named the OVC Male Athlete of the Year on Wednesday. It marks only the second time one school has swept the OVC Male and Female Athlete of the Year awards in the same year joining Southeast Missouri in 1999-00 (Bud Eley and Jenny Oermann).
Carlson started her career as an All-OVC soccer player for the Panthers but took advantage of her extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19 to run cross country for the first time at the collegiate level. She earned OVC Runner of the Week honors four times during the year on her way to OVC Athlete of hte Year and Athlete of the Championship honors. She won the OVC crown by 28 seconds with a 5K time of 17:47.9. She would go on to earn All-Midwest honors by placing 20th at the Regional with a 6K time of 21:14.24. Carlson set the EIU records in both the 5K and 6K during the season.
Carlson was injured during a large portion of the indoor track season but did return to score points in both the 3,000 meter and 5,000 meter events at the OVC Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Returning healthy for the Outdoor Track & Field season, Carlson swept both distance events at the OVC Outdoor Championship, scoring 20 points as the Panthers placed fourth as a team. She had a 32-second win in the 10,000 meter run on the opening night of the championship (37:06.16) and returned two days later to win the 5,000 meters by 10 seconds (17:17.83). During the outdoor season Carlson set the school record in both the 5K (16:27.08, becoming the first EIU runner with a sub-17 minutes time) and the 10k (34:13.13, the first sub-35 minute time in school history). Carlson will run at the NCAA West Regional in the 10,000 meter run as she currently ranks 39th in the event.
Carlson is the third different Eastern Illinois student-athlete to be named OVC Female Athlete of the Year, joining volleyball player Erica Gerth (2004-05) and track and field athlete Kandace Arnold (2009-10).
Other female nominees for the award included Austin Peay junior track athlete Kenisha Phillips, Belmont sophomore basketball player Destinee Wells, Morehead State graduate volleyball player Olivia Lohmeier, Murray State senior track athlete Rachel Hagans, Southeast Missouri senior volleyball outside hitter Laney Malloy, SIUE sophomore soccer forward Mackenzie Litzsinger, Tennessee Tech graduate basketball player Anna Jones and UT Martin graduate soccer defender Kamryn Chappell.
The OVC first awarded a Female Athlete of the Year honor in 1981.
