Slack, Matadi Earn NCAA DII Outdoor Championships High-Point Awards

ALLENDALE, Michigan – In a weekend of exceptional performances at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, no one was more exceptional than New Mexico Highlands’ Salcia Slack and Emmanuel Matadi of Minnesota State.

Slack and Matadi earned women’s and men’s High Point Scorer awards, respectively, from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for their efforts at Grand Valley State on May 21-23.

Slack scored 30¼ points over the course of seven events to lead all scorers regardless of gender, while Matadi swept the 100- and 200-meter finals and ran the 4×100 relay for a total of 20¾.

Slack took top women’s honors by more than seven points over team champion Central Missouri’s Erika Kinsey (23 points). She won her second heptathlon title in a row with a score of 5691 points; was runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles in a career-best 13.42 and in the 400-meter hurdles in a career-best 58.24; and was sixth in the long jump.

She was also ran a leg of the fourth-place 4×400 relay that clinched her New Mexico Highlands program a third-place overall team finish.

Matadi’s margin over the next-best scorer wasn’t nearly as comfortable as Slack’s; the senior claimed top honors by just three quarters of a point over another two-time national champion in Adams State’s Tabor Stevens.

He opened Saturday with a leg of the sixth-place 4×400 relay team, followed by a pair of wins at both 100 meters (10.21w, +2.4m/s)and at 200 meters (20.54). His performance at 200 meters moved him to the top of the 2015 NCAA Division II 200 meters list.