The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian connection at Purdue University got some exciting news as head coach Lonnie Greene was unanimously selected as the women’s Big Ten Coach of the Year, while sprint and hurdles specialist Devynne Charlton was the unanimous selection for the women’s Track Athlete of the Championships.

The double honour came after the duo over the weekend helped Purdue win its first Big Ten Outdoor women’s team title since 1999. “It’s always an honour when your peers dub you as the coach of the year,” said Greene on the Boilermakers’ athletic website.

“In a league like the Big Ten where some of the best coaches in the country practice this craft, for them to deem you worthy of such a great honour is such a great blessing from the Lord.”

Greene, however, didn’t accept the full success of the Boilermakers. He attributed it to the support he got from his staff, including Bahamian assistant coach Norbert Elliott and his wife Angela Elliott, Jeff Kent, Keith McBride, Chris Huffins and Cory Thalheimer.

“They all played a specific role in me getting this honour. Every head coach is only as good as his assistants,” he said. “And to the athletes under my charge, I am grateful because it was them who did the work.”

Greene is the second Purdue women’s head coach to take home the women’s Big Ten Coach of the Year honours outdoors. He joins Ben Paolillo, who won the award in 1999 after leading the women’s team to the Big Ten title that year.

Greene has led the Boilermakers to their highest outdoor programme ranking in history at No. 15, which the team has been ranked twice this season.

This week, the team checks in at No. 16 nationally. He also has led the women’s team to the top overall ranking in the Great Lakes Region in every poll, indoors and outdoors, since the beginning of the year.

Greene’s women scored 133 points at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships, which is second in programme history, behind only the 1999 championship team’s 143 points. That year, the conference had three fewer teams.

Charlton, in her senior year, was one of Purdue’s women who won five event Big Ten titles over the weekend to pave the way for the team title.

In her role, workhorse Charlton captured three gold medals in a span of 60 minutes as she alone collected a total of 26.5 points to contribute to the Boilermakers’ success. She won the 100-metre dash - one of just two women in programme history to do so - the 100-meter hurdles, the first by a Boilermaker since 1985, and ran the lead leg of the championship 4x100-meter relay team, the third year in a row the team won the conference title.

 “Devynne has got a gift that is second to none. She knows how to turn it on and turn it off,” said Green, as he sang the praises of the St Augustine’s College graduate.

“She’s got that thing that only comes from within. I’m not surprised that she was named Big Ten Athlete of the Championships. Her performance was far above almost every female competing in the championship.”

Charlton’s 100m dash title was the second of her career and came with a wind-legal school-record time of 11.31 seconds. Her 100m hurdles time was a windy (+3.6) 12.67 seconds, which is tied for second among qualifying marks in the country this year. She was also fifth in the 200m dash, her fourth event of the day Sunday.

Charlton is the fifth Purdue woman to win an outdoor Athlete of the Championships award and the first to do so with the track distinction. Dani Bunch was the Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships in 2014 for her efforts in the shot put and hammer throw, while Kara Patterson earned the Field Athlete of the Championships for her work in the javelin in 2008. Angela Craft was the Big Ten Athlete of the Championships in 2001, before the conference designated separate awards for track and field athletes, while Corissa Yasen was Big Ten Athlete of the Championships in 1995.

Charlton’s award adds to a historic season, which has also seen her win the indoor Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year and Big Ten Track Athlete of the Championships awards.

She earned first team All-America honors indoors with the 60m hurdles after finishing second in the country. This year alone, Charlton has five Big Ten gold medals, including the three from over the weekend.

The Boilermakers now prepare for the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds. The official draws will be announced later this week.