NEW ORLEANS - The USTFCCCA released the latest National Athlete of the Week awards on Tuesday, and Tiffin's Jonte Baker has been named the Division II Men's honoree.
The senior from Cleveland, Ohio, put together a series of strong performances in the 60 at the USATF Indoor Championships this past weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Baker recorded times of 6.67 and 6.62 in the preliminaries and semifinals, respectively, before placing eighth in the finals in 6.67. He is 0.01 seconds shy of his personal best of 6.61, which currently has him as the No. 6 performer all-time in Division II.
Converted for altitude, the mark of 6.62 moves to 6.64, but still ranks Baker No. 1 in all of DII this season.
This is the first time in his career that Baker has been named National Athlete of the Week, and the second-straight week of the honor for a Tiffin men's athlete as thrower Nikolas Curtiss won the award on Feb. 11.
Baker is now the fifth athlete from Tiffin to be named National Athlete of the Week during the indoor season, joining Curtiss, James Ngandu in 2018, Coy Blair in 2017, and Lamar Hargrove in 2015.