Ofili Named Honda Sports Award Nominee
6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Senior co-captain Tiffany Ofili(Ypsilanti, Mich./Ypsilanti) of the University of Michigan women's track and field team has been named as one of four nominees for the 2008-09 Honda Sports Award for Track and Field, given to the most outstanding female collegiate athlete in the nation.
The other three nominees for the track and field award are Jennifer Barringer of the University of Colorado, Sarah Bowman of the University of Tennessee and Blessing Okagbare of the University of Texas, El Paso. Ofili is U-M's first-ever nominee for the Honda Sports Award for Track and Field.
Honda Sports Award nominees are selected not only for their superior athletic skills, but also for their leadership abilities, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service. The winner of the award, selected by a nationwide panel of NCAA administrators, will then become a nominee for the Honda-Broderick Cup, awarded annually to the nation's top female collegiate athlete.
In her four-year career with the Maize and Blue, Ofili has won four NCAA national championships and nine Big Ten titles. She has won the NCAA indoor 60-meter hurdle crown each of the past two seasons (2008, '09) and is the two-time defending NCAA outdoor 100-meter hurdle national champion (2007, '08). Ofili will attempt to earn her third outdoor 100-meter hurdle title at the 2009 NCAA Championships (June 10-13) in Fayetteville, Ark. She is a three-time Big Ten champion in the outdoor 100-meter hurdles (2006, '07, '09) and a three-time indoor 60-meter hurdle conference champion (2007, '08, '09). Ofili also earned Big Ten titles in the outdoor long jump and outdoor 4x100-meter relay in 2009 and the indoor long jump in 2008.
This season Ofili was also named the outstanding female performer at the Drake Relays on April 25after winning the special invitational 100-meter hurdles. Ofili was the only collegian in the special invitational field competing against seven professionals; including 2008 U.S. Olympian Lolo Jones and former world champion Perdita Felicien, winning with a season-best time of 12.82 seconds. She also competed in the elite 60-meter hurdles at the 102nd Millrose Games on Jan. 30 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Ofili finished third at Millrose, behind Priscilla Lopes-Schliep of Canada, the 2008 Olympic 100m hurdle bronze medalist, and Sally McLellan of Australia, the 2008 Olympic 100m hurdle silver medalist.
Ofili holds the U-M records in the indoor 60-meter dash (7.42), indoor 60-meter hurdles (7.94) and outdoor 100-meter hurdles (12.73).
Off the track, Ofili is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten Conference honoree (2007, '08, 09), a 2008 CoSIDA Academic All-District second team honoree and a four-time U-M Athletic Academic Achievement Award winner (2006, '07, '09, '09). She is enrolled in U-M's pharmacy program.
Contact: Jeremy Reid (734) 763-4423
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