MILWAUKEE, Wis. (naccsports.org) --- Aurora University junior Deyanneira Colon Maldonado has been named the 2024 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Athlete of the Year for both women's indoor track and field and women's outdoor track and field. The honors were determined by a vote of the league's head track and field coaches.

Indoor Season
Colon Maldonado had a dominant season indoors, finishing unbeaten against NACC competition in the mile, 3000, and 5000. Along the way, she set new NACC all-time marks in those three events as well as the distance medley relay.

After nearly breaking the NACC all-time mark in the 5000 with a 17:32.29 clocking at Boston University in early December, she opened the 2024 portion of the schedule by posting NACC all-time record clockings of 4:56.64 in the mile and 9:57.71 in the 3000 at the Aurora Grand Prix on Jan. 19. Colon Maldonado followed it up eight days later by lowering the 3K mark to 9:43.34 with a blistering run at the DePaul Blue Demon Alumni Classic, then added the 5K record on Feb. 9 with a time of 16:46.19 at the Grand Valley State Big Meet. Her final NACC all-time record came on March 1 at the Wartburg Qualifier when she anchored the Aurora distance medley relay squad to a time of 12:11.92.

Colon Maldonado was named Women's Track Athlete of the Meet at the 2024 NACC Indoor Track and Field Championships in late February after scoring 32.5 points on the strength of three individual titles and a relay victory. She won both the mile (5:07.88) and 3000 (10:09.61) in championship-record time while also posting a win in the 5000 (18:15.73) and anchoring the Spartans' victorious distance medley relay (13:04.33).

Colon Maldonado qualified for the 2024 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in both the 3000 and 5000, finishing with USTFCCCA Second Team All-America honors in both events. She placed 14th in the 3000 with a time of 9:51.89 and just missed first-team all-America honors in the 5000 by placing ninth with a time of 16:59.49.

Colon Maldonado had entered the 2024 with the NACC's all-time mile mark to her credit after running 4:59.08 at last year's Wartburg Qualifier. She eclipsed former Spartan Emily Paull's NACC Championship mark of 5:08.65 from 2015.

In the 3000, she erased Paull's 2015 all-time mark of 10:13.39 with a total of three sub-10:00 clockings during the course of the season and took a full 10 seconds off the NACC Championship mark of 10:19.63 set in 2018 by Jackie Schane - another former Spartan. Schane also held the old NACC all-time mark in the 5K, posting a 17:30.29 clocking in 2018.

The Aurora DMR team of N'Dya Fields, Lauren Bliefernicht, Madison Etheridge, and Colon Maldonado erased the mark of 12:13.74 set by another Spartan quartet at the 2016 North Central (Ill.) Cardinal Classic.

Outdoor Season
Colon Maldonado showed some versatility during the outdoor season, running events at distances ranging from 400 to 5000 meters. Colon Maldonado set the NACC all-time mark in the 5000 with a 16:34.97 clocking at the UW-Platteville Invitational on April 12, then broke the NACC all-time mark in the 1500 the following day with a 4:32.09 clocking at the Wheaton Invitational. She would subsequently lower the mark to 4:31.01 at the Wheaton Twilight one week later before running the current standard of 4:26.24 at the St. Francis Fighting Chance Invitational in mid-May.

Colon Maldonado also ran the 400 and 800 for the only time in 2024 at the Wheaton Twilight and posted times of 1:01.29 and 2:18.48 - times that ended the year ninth and second, respectively, on the final 2024 NACC performance list.

At the 2024 NACC Outdoor Championships, she finished as one of the top individual point scorers after winning both the 1500 (4:35.30) and 5000 (18:00.13) and running on Aurora's winning 4x400 relay (4:03.33). Colon Maldonado's winning time in the 1500 set a new championship record.

In the 1500, she erased a pair of marks set by Paull. The previous all-time mark of 4:34.81 was set in 2015, while the former championship record of 4:43.29 was set at the 2014 NACC Championships. The previous all-time mark of 17:30.20 in the 5000 had been held by Edgewood's Piper Atnip since 2017.

Colon Maldonado ran to a fourth-place finish and USTFCCCA First Team All-America honors in the 1500 at the 2024 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships. She posted a time of 4:28.78 to take fourth in her preliminary heat, then ran a 4:32.24 in the final. Colon Maldonado added second-team all-America honors with an 11th-place finish in the 5000 with a time of 17:04.10.

Colon Maldonado was named NACC Women's Track Athlete of the Week a total of seven times this winter and spring. She captured the honor five times indoors - four times due to her solo exploits on the track and a fifth as a member of the record-setting DMR. Colon Maldonado was also a two-time honoree during the outdoor portion of the schedule.