NEW ORLEANS— After earning a pair of first team all-America honors as the first Colorado Mesa University Maverick track and field athlete to do so in the same season, junior jumper Eddie Kurjak has been named as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division II South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year.
 
Kurjak is the first Maverick to ever earn a regional honor from the organization.
 
The Longmont, Colorado native took fourth in the high jump and eighth in the triple jump at the NCAA Division II National Championships in Pittsburg, Kansas on Mar. 9.  He had also won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title in the high jump while earning three total and two first team all-conference honors.  He scored 20 team points in the three jumping events at the RMAC Championships, equal to the most of any field athlete in the men's meet, placing third in the triple jump and fifth in the long jump while leading the Mavs to a program-record score of 106 team points and a third place team finish.
 
Kurjak, who split time between the CMU basketball and track & field teams over the past two years, before devoting himself to track & field this year, was also named as the RMAC Field Athlete of the Week on two separate occasions during the indoor campaign.
 
He cleared more than seven feet in the high jump in four of his six meets and cleared at least six feet, 11 inches in the other two, setting a school-record of 2.20 meters (7-2.5) at the Mines Winter Classic & Multi on Jan 27.  He also set a career-best long jump mark of 7.33 meters (24-0.75) to rank second in program history at that meet before turning in a No. 3 ranking performance of 15.28 meters (50-1.75) in the triple jump at the NCAA Championships.
 
Kurjak also claimed first two career USTFCCCA All-Region honors this season and was the region's top performer in the high jump.  He is now a 5-time overall and 3-time First Team All-RMAC performer.