SUWANEE, Ga. -- After exclusive voting by the head coaches and sports information directors of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), the league office today announced its 2025 Women's Outdoor Track & Field postseason awards.
Joy Areola of Trinity University earned Field Athlete-of-the-Year for the second consecutive season, while Southwestern University’s Arden Neff was selected as the Women’s Track Athlete-of-the-Year.
Rounding out the balloting, Annabelle Lanik of Trinity was tabbed as Women’s Newcomer-of-the Year and the TU Tiger coaching staff, led by head coach Marcus Whitehead, earned Women’s Staff-of-the-Year honors.
The all-conference team is determined by performance at the conference championship meet where the top three finishers in each event are recognized as All-SCAC. Complete All-SCAC Women's Track & Field Team
Areola, a native of Tomball, Texas is the first athlete in SCAC Women’s Track history to win back-to-back Field Athlete-of-the-Year honors since it was first awarded in 2011 and is just the third athlete to win the award multiple times. Areola closed out her stellar career with a 14th-place finish (11.83m) in the triple jump to earn Second Team All-American honors at last month’s National Championship. It marked the second consecutive year where Areola has secured AA honors in the triple jump, finishing 13th in 2024. At the SCAC Championships, the senior secured a pair of All-SCAC honors, highlighted by her career sweep in the triple jump, earning her fourth straight win in the event. She is the only woman in league history to win the triple jump four times and finishes her career with the top two leaps all-time in SCAC Championship Meet history.
A five-time SCAC Field Athlete-of-the-Week honoree during her career, Areola’s selection is the third consecutive and ninth time overall a Trinity women’s athlete has earned SCAC Field Athlete-of-the-Year honors.
Neff, a senior from Lake Jackson, Texas capped her SCAC career with her fourth straight victory in the 400-meter hurdles, breaking the tape this year in a league record time of 1:01.17, knocking off the former mark of 1:01.85 which was set by Molly Buck of Rhodes in 2011. Neff, winner of the 2025 prestigious Elite 19 award, she is just the second woman in SCAC history to win gold four times in the 400-meter hurdles. On the national stage, Neff became the first SCAC All-American since 2019 in the 400-meter hurdles when she finished seventh at the NCAA Championships, crossing the line in 1:01.81.
Neff is the first Southwestern women’s track athlete to earn SCAC Women’s Track Athlete-of-the-Year in program history.
Lanik, a first-year from Sugar Land, Texas put together an outstanding rookie campaign, breaking through on both the conference and national stages. In April at the SCAC Championships, Lanik put together three All-SCAC performances including a gold medal in the long jump with a leap of 5.97m. In addition to her first-place finish in the long jump, Lanik also finished second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.25 and ran a leg on Trinity’s second-place 4x100 meter relay squad that crossed the line in 47.77. Following her breakout performances at the conference championship, Lanik shined on the national stage taking home bronze at the 2025 NCAA Championships in the long jump with a leap of 5.99m. Her All-American, third-place performance, at NCAAs was the third AA performance in conference history in the event and the highest individual finish at nationals since Tiarra Goode of former SCAC member Birmingham-Southern won the national title in the 100-meter hurdles in 2012.
Lanik’s selection marks the fourth time a Trinity woman has earned Track Newcomer-of-the-Year honors and the first time since Ellie Catron following the 2021 season.
Finally, the conference's Women’s Track & Field Staff of the Year honor went to the Trinity staff after another strong season which culminated in the Tigers winning the SCAC women’s track & field championship for the ninth time in the last 10 years and 17th time overall, the most of any program in league history. Led by 12th-year Head Coach Marcus Whitehead, the award marks the ninth time in the last 10 years he and his assistant coaches were honored as the SCAC Women’s Staff of the Year.
