SAINT LOUIS, Mo. – The Illinois State track & field program picked up two postseason awards as announced by the conference office Tuesday afternoon.
Associate head coach DeShaun Jordan has been named the 2025 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year following a vote by the league's head coaches.
Jordan's honor marks his first career Women's Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year award and his second conference honor of the 2024-25 campaign after receiving the same honor during the indoor season. Earlier this May at the 2025 MVC Outdoor Track & Field Championship, Jordan helped guide seven different Redbirds to score points on 11 occasions. In total, Jordan's athletes scored 59 of the Redbirds' 119 points in their runner-up effort.
Jordan also coached Junior Lindsey Miller to a championship in the women's 100m dash to secure back-to-back titles. Miller became the first back-to-back champion in the 100m dash in Illinois State history and the third Redbird to claim two championships in the event.
The men's squad was selected as the 2024-25 Track & Field & Cross Country program of the year. Across the campaign, the Redbirds secured four individual MVC titles. The Redbirds also earned two team runner-up finishes, and a third-place team finish over the 2024-25 season.
To open the year, Senior William Sinclair claimed the MVC Men's Cross Country title at the 2024 MVC Cross Country Championship in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Redbirds had four runners secure top-10 finishes to secure a runner-up finish at the event.Â
A week later at the NCAA Midwest Regional, Sinclair became the first Redbird since Kevin Koski in 2021 to qualify for the NCAA Championship. Sinclair qualified following a ninth-place finish at the Midwest Regional. Along with Sinclair, the Redbirds secured 179 points to record a fourth-place finish at the Midwest Regional, the highest for the Redbirds since 2001, where Illinois State finished sixth.
To close out the indoor season, the Redbirds claimed two individual titles in a runner-up finish at the 2025 MVC Indoor Track & Field Championship. Senior Ariel Atias defended his heptathlon title with a point total of 5353 points. Along with Atias, the men's 4x400m team of Enyinnaya Nwagwu Jr., Jake Welch, Cade Ward, and Zach Paul won the title with a time of 3:10.51, a MVC title meet record. Across the two-day event, the Redbirds earned 130.5 points in a third-place effort.
At the 2025 MVC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the Redbirds earned a runner-up finish with 151 points. Illinois State was headlined by Senior Zack Loomis, who earned his first career MVC title in the 10,000m after he ran a time of 30:32.37. Freshman Victor Byaundaombe also earned his first-ever championship after winning the men's triple jump with a leap of 14.94m.Â
As the outdoor season continues with the NCAA West Region First Round slated to begin on Wednesday, May 28, Byaundaombe and six other Redbird men student-athletes also qualified for the event throughout the outdoor campaign.
