The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced that 229 men's track & field athletes have been named 2011 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes.

Nominated by each institution's head coach, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and have achieved junior academic status to qualify.

Two members of the Grand View University men's track & field team earned Scholar-Athlete status. Juniors Shawn Travers (New Brighton, Minn.) and Zach Vos (Pella, Iowa) both qualified for the award.

Grand View brought home the men's title at the MCC Track & Field Championships today at Williams Stadium in Des Moines. The Vikings won five events and finished with a team score of 299 points at the two-day event.

Grand View junior Tyler Wells (Des Moines, Iowa) was deemed the MCC Field Athlete of the Year. Wells won both the shot put (16.79m) and the discus (48.21m).

GV produced two conference-winning relay teams. The 4x100m relay team of Titus Bland, Wes Hammer, Tyler Patten, and Toi Jones won with a time of 42.08. The 400m relay team of Hammer, Alex Alvarez, Tariq White, and Pete Westerkamp ran a 3:23.87.

Westerkamp was also an individual champion in the 400m hurdles, finishing with a time of 56:03.

Grand View's Jerry Monner was selected by his peers as the MCC Men's Coach of the Year.

The Grand View men's and women's track and field teams both lead in the team scoring following the first day of the Midwest Collegiate Conference Track & Field Championships held today at Williams Stadium in Des Moines.

The men lead the team scoring with 141 points; second place St. Ambrose has 68. The women are in first placw with 77.5 points, just ahead of second place Mount Mercy who has 65.

The Vikings crowned seven champions between the two squads today; four on the men's side and three on the women's.

The Viking men were well represented in the field event area. For the second straight year, Tyler Wells won both the shot put (16.79m) and the discus (48.21m).

Two Grand View track & field members have earned MCC weekly honors. Junior Obsie Birru was named the MCC Women's Track Athlete of the Week and junior Tyler Wells was selected as the MCC Men's Field Athlete of the Week announced Monday. It is Birru's fourth award of the season and Wells' third.

Birru was recognized for her performances at last week's Drake Relays. Birru was second in the 10,000 meters with an NAIA ‘A' standard time of 34:59.56. She also led the Vikings' distance medley and 4 x 800 relay teams to school records, with times of 12:07:23 (7^th place) in the distance medley and 9:33.04 (9^th) in the 4 x 800.

Wells was honored for his performances at the Viking Classic hosted by Grand View last Friday. Wells won the shot put and met the NAIA ‘A' standard with a throw of 52-2 ½ . He also was third in the hammer throw (159-7) and sixth in the discus (148-10).

The GV men's track & field team was busy over the weekend, competing at both the Drake Relays and hosting the Viking Classic.

Two relays teams competed at the Drake Relays in Des Moines on Friday. Both placed in the top 20 with one team setting a new GV school record.

The 4x200m relay team of Titus Bland, Wes Hammer, Zach Vos and Toi Jones placed 14^thin a school record time of 1:29.44.

Earlier in the day, the 4x100m relay team of Bland, Hammer, Bryce Adger and Jones finished 16^th in 42.34 seconds.