The Tribune

DEVYNNE Charlton completed the Big Ten major award sweep, the conference office has announced.

Charlton was voted the Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year for the outdoor season by the conference coaches, which gives her the award indoors and outdoors, as well as the Big Ten Track Athlete of the Championships for the indoor and outdoor seasons this year.

Charlton won three Big Ten event titles, as well as the team title, earned two first team All-America honours and scored 4.5 of the team's 10 points at the NCAA Championships to help the women finish 21st in the country during her redshirt junior season. She scored 26.5 of Purdue's 133 points to lead the team to its first outdoor Big Ten title since 1999. A native of Nassau, Bahamas, Charlton wrapped up her season by setting the school record in the 100 metre hurdles at the NCAA Championships after running 12.74 seconds to finish fifth.

She also set the 100-metre dash programme record, which came at the Big Ten Championships in her gold medal performance. She was also a member of the 4x100-metre shuttle hurdle relay school record, which came at the Drake Relays.

Earlier this week, Charlton was named Purdue Athletics' Female Athlete of the Year for the second time in her career. Last week, she was named the Great Lakes Region's Women's Track Athlete of the Year.

Charlton has achieved feats that no woman in school history ever has before. She is the first strictly track athlete to win the Big Ten Women's Athlete of the Year award outdoors.

The Boilermakers have four Athlete of the Year awards prior, but all by field athletes, most recently Dani Bunch in 2014. She is the first first team All-American in the 100-metre hurdles in programme history. Her first team All-America honour in the 4x100-metre relay is the second of her career, as she is a member of the only two 400-metre relays teams to achieve first team All-America status. Her Big Ten title in the 100-metre dash is the first by a Boilermaker since 1982, aside from her own victory at the conference meet in 2015.

Her 100-metre hurdles title is the first by a Boilermaker since 1985. Charlton is also a member of two of the three Big Ten champion 4x100-metre relay teams, with the only one missing her coming last year when she was out with an injury.

Charlton is the fourth woman in conference history to sweep the indoor and outdoor Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year and Big Ten Track Athlete of the Championships indoors and outdoors in the same year since the award split for track and field designations in 2007. Charlton is the first woman in school history to win multiple individual Big Ten titles indoors and outdoors in the same year, and one of just two women in Purdue lore to win multiple event conference titles indoors and outdoors in the same year.

Charlton's incredible year, indoors and out, featured five Big Ten event titles (60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, 100-meter dash, 100-meter hurdles and 4x100-meter relay), the outdoor team title and four All-America honors, including three first team nods. A senior indoors, Charlton finished runner-up at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 60-meter hurdles and claimed conference crowns in the hurdles and 60-meter dash. She added a silver medal performance in the 200-meter dash at indoor Big Tens to bring her meet total to 28 of Purdue's 94 points, where the Boilermakers finished second as a team. She earned first team All-America honors with her second place finish in the 60-meter hurdles, with a Bahamian national record time, and was a second team All-American in the 60-meter dash after placing 16th.

During the year, Charlton broke the school record in the 60-meter hurdles (7.93 seconds), 60-meter dash (7.26 seconds), 100-meter dash (11.31 seconds), 100-meter hurdles (12.74 seconds) and as a member of the shuttle hurdle relay team (53.85 seconds). She also ran the No. 2 time in school history in the indoor 200-meter dash (23.53 seconds). She was twice named the Big Ten Track Athlete of the Week, with one indoors and one outdoors. At the Drake Relays, she competed in the Rio Rematch 100-meter hurdles race and finished ahead of three Olympic finalists, including the bronze medalist.

Charlton was one of the main reasons the women earned their highest in-season rankings in program history indoors (12th) and outdoors (14th). She scored eight of the teams 12 points at the NCAA Indoor Championships to lead the women's team to a 14th place finish, the second highest in program history.

With one outdoor season remaining, Charlton is an eight-time All-American, including six first-team honors in her career. She has won eight Big Ten titles, three Big Ten Track Athlete of the Championship awards, two Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year honors and a Great Lakes Track Athlete of the Year. She has scored 121.75 points at Big Ten meets and 21.25 points at NCAA Championships. Charlton is a four-time first team All-Big Ten selection and once a second teamer.