The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE accolades continue to pile up for multi-talented thrower Tiffany Hanna as a graduate of Wagner College and a member of their Seahawks track and field team.

Last week while enjoying her return home and the delicious Bahamian food, Hanna found out that she was named Northeast Conference (NEC) Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

The 21-year-old shared the outdoor track and field honour with Central Connecticut’s Angie Rafter, but she was also in some good company at Wagner College where, for the 30th time, a student-athlete has received the recognition from NEC, dating back to the Winter 2004-05 season.

“I was very happy and grateful,” Hanna told The Tribune about the latest honour. “This was a very difficult year because of COVID-19, so I wasn’t really sure what my season was going to be like going back to New York and Wagner in February.

“It really turned out great and I’m really grateful that I was able to end it on a very high note.”

She attributed her success to the persistent work ethic that her coach Blerim Pocesta and her strength coach instilled in her after she got back to school after spending nine months at home during the COVID-19 outbreak.

“He tried to encourage us to just believe in ourselves despite all that we were going through,” said Hanna, who noted that the support and help from God and her family and friends, both in the Bahamas and in the United States, helped as well.

Through her hard work and dedication, Hanna was also this year’s recipient of the Dr Donald W Spiro Award, for best academic achievement for 2021, the most prestigious award at Wagner, recognising outstanding academic and co-curricular achievements.

Hanna also recently won the Douglas Gee Morton Award in Economics for academically outstanding work in economics and as a student of good moral character.

In the classroom, Hanna concluded her academic career with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.98 to log onto her profile at her graduation on May 27.

This season, the senior claimed NEC Most Outstanding Field Performer (Throws) honours for the third time in her Seahawk tenure following a 23-point performance at the 2021 NEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. In addition to this year, Hanna won the award in the 2020 outdoor season and the 2019-2020 indoor season.

Hanna also won the discus with a toss of 156-feet, 7-inches and added a second-place finish in the hammer at 169-5. She rounded out the weekend with a fourth-place showing in the shot put with a mark of 40-2 1/4.

“I would say it’s almost an unbelievable year considering that has happened this year,” Hanna said.

“Basically, my first meet, I PRed in the events that I competed in and that was unbelievable for me, considering the fact that I came off the longest break that I’ve ever been on in track and field.

“The first few weeks were rough, training and everything. Of course, I hadn’t been doing it for a while so I had to get back into conditioning and all of that first. Once I did get back into it, I really saw my performances grow.”

With her season over, Hanna said she will take a break from track and field and won’t be participating in the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ National Championships this weekend at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

Instead, she said she will be focusing her attention on grad school at Fordham University in New York where she will pursue her PhD in Economics.

Looking back at her career, Hanna said she found out that athletics leads to some many things in life, including endurance, patience, focus and believing in yourself.

“Don’t take it for granted, even if you are not sure you want to continue with it,” she stated.

“I know it’s made a tremendous impact on my life and one that I will never forget.”

Hanna, a 2017 graduate of St Augustine’s College and former CARIFTA standout, is the daughter of Patrick and Dr Alvery Hanna, who could be seen around the track at every meet lending her medical assistance and has travelled on a number of national teams in the past.