WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Senior Brionna Thomas was named the women's Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year the conference announced Tuesday. The award is voted on by the conference head coaches. Thomas earned two first team All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships over the weekend.
Thomas was part of two school records at the meet. First, she finished fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.56 seconds. That time is the third-fastest in Big Ten history. Later Saturday, she ran the second leg of the 4x400-meter relay team that finished runner-up with a time of 3:28.82. That time makes Purdue the eighth-fastest school in the country all-time in the event. It is also a conference record.
As an individual, Thomas' fifth-place finish in the 400-meter dash was the highest individual finish by a Big Ten woman on the track at the national meet. She is the only Big Ten woman to earn two first team All-America honors this year.
Thomas also had a successful Big Ten Championships in late February. She was the conference runner-up in the 400m dash with a then-school record, before anchoring the gold-medal 4x400-meter relay team that set a then-conference record.
Thomas makes it two years in a row that a Purdue woman has been named the women's Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year, after Devynne Charlton won it last year. They are Purdue's only two women to win the conference athlete of the year award indoors as track athletes.
Since the Big Ten split the athlete of the year awards in the track and field designations in 2007, Purdue is the first women's program to win the track athlete of the year award in back-to-back years by different women.
Purdue has dominated the award haul on the track. Earlier this month, senior Jahneya Mitchell was named the Great Lakes Track Athlete of the Year for her efforts in the 600-meter dash and 4x400-meter relay.
Since Lonnie Greene took over as head coach before the 2012-13 season, the Purdue women have dominated the major awards. In his six years, the Purdue women have won two regional athlete of the year awards, five Big Ten athletes of the year, five Big Ten athletes of the championships and three Big Ten freshmen of the year.