Grace McKenzie and golf coach Derek Plucienski (for Blake Elliott) presented the award by family members of Desmond Jones.
LAKE CHARLES – McNeese track and field All-American Grace McKenzie and former Cowboys' golf All-American Blake Elliott were named the 2018-19 Desmond Jones Memorial McNeese Athletes of the Year and were recognized during Saturday's football game against Northwestern State.
The award, which is named in memory of Desmond Jones, a McNeese Sports Hall of Famer, was introduced in the 1985-86 sport season and for the past several years, has been awarded to a male and a female winner.
McKenzie had a record-breaking 2019 indoor season in the pentathlon where she earned All-American honors after placing 8th at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She set a new school record with 4,230 points while also setting a new Southland Conference mark and an Irish National record.
She was named the 2019 Southland Conference Indoor Track Women's Student-Athlete of the Year.
In addition, she earned Southland Conference All-Academic honors and first team All-Louisiana honors in the pentathlon for the indoor season and third team in the long jump during the outdoor slate despite missing the last part of the season due to an injury.
Elliott earned Southland Conference and Louisiana Player of the Year honors and qualified for his fourth straight NCAA regional.
He was named a PING Division I All-American after leading the team and Southland Conference in scoring while ranking 13th in the nation with a 70.47 average score per round.
He tied a school record with a round of 63 in helping him win the Warrior Princeville Invitational and shot par or better in 26 of 31 rounds played including 12 in the 60s.
He qualified for the NCAA Austin Regional as an individual and missed out on advancing to the NCAA Championships by one stroke.
In addition to his All-American standing, Elliott was named the Southland Conference and Louisiana Men's Golfer of the Year.
