LOWELL, MA (Mar. 13, 2008) – Sophomore Olivia Thibou (Boston, MA), who will compete in the triple jump at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship Saturday, was named the Northeast Region Women’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Year Thursday by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

The honor is the first major award for Thibou, as she looks to wrap a stellar indoor season Saturday at the NCAAs. Thibou enters Saturday’s triple jump (4:45) seeded fifth by virtue of the fifth-longest distance this season.

At the New England Championship on Feb. 1, Thibou stunned the field by leaping 38 feet, 11.0 inches, a career-best distance which pitted her fourth overall and tops among Division II and III athletes.

Thibou’s leap also tied for the second farthest in UML history (the school record is 40’ 4.75’’ set in 2007 by Toni-Marie Henry) and exceeded her previous career-best of 37’ 3.0’’, achieved at the Northeast-10 Conference Championship on Feb. 23, by nearly two feet.

“A lot of it is strength that Olivia didn’t have a freshman,” said UML Head Coach Gary Gardner. “She got a lot stronger over the summer and fall. Over the last couple weeks both her triple jump and her long jump were improving a ton. We could see it coming. And finally it all came together at the New Englands.”

Thibou is a graduate of John D. O’Bryant H.S. in Boston.