Winning is nothing new to Hillsdale College's Emily Oren. She has a trophy case full of plaques and awards showing just that. Thursday afternoon, she took home the most prestigious award available to Division II female athletes.
Oren was named the Division II Honda Women's Athlete of the Year. The award was presented by the Collegiate Women's Sports Awards. The organization recognizes a total of three female college athletes across all NCAA divisions, one each from Division I, II and III.
The awards ceremony will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network from Los Angeles on Monday, June 27 at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
This is the third time in the past five years an athlete from a GLIAC institution has won Division II's top award. Oren is just the third athlete in GLIAC history to win this award, joining Northern Michigan's Stacy Metro (1993-94) and Ashland's Kari Daugherty (2011-12, 2012-13).
"Emily Oren personifies a Hillsdale College student-athlete," said Chargers head track & field coach Andrew Towne. "But what separates her is her drive, She was truly committed to excellence throughout her career and that's why many consider her to be the greatest female distance runner in Division II history.
"We couldn't be more proud of her."
Oren was a two-time winner of the Honda Athlete of the Year Nominee for Women's Track & Field and barely missed capturing the overall award in 2014-15. But her series of championship-level performances ensured there would be no doubting her worthiness year.
Oren's 2015-16 season in cross country and track was nothing short of spectacular. She had already captured four national championships before the year even began. This year, she managed to top herself.
It started during cross country season last fall, when Oren won the USTFCCCA National Runner of the Week award while leading her team to a No. 1 ranking in the Division II poll, a first for any Hillsdale College team. Led by Oren's conference and regional individual championships, the Chargers finished second in each of those respective meets. Hillsdale would go on to place third at the NCAA Division II championships, taking the first step on its road to becoming the NCAA Women's Program of the Year.
The 2015-16 indoor track season also saw Hillsdale earn a No. 1 national ranking, with Oren taking in even more awards. She was the national champion in the mile and 3000 meter run, while also anchoring her second straight national title-winning distance medley relay team. Her three national championships in distance events at one NCAA meet was unprecedented. The Chargers were national runner-ups for the second year in a row
The outdoor season saw a fitting final act to Oren's incredible career. At the 2016 GLIAC Outdoor Championships, she set an all-time Division II record in the steeplechase with a time of 9:50.54, which met this year's Olympic standard. She'd go on to triple at the NCAA outdoor championships, capturing two more titles, in the steeplechase and the 1500 before finishing third in the 5000 meter run. She piled up 26 points by herself, which would have ranked her 10th among all teams at the meet.
But there was much more to Oren than just her outward effortlessness on the track and plethora of medals. If her challenges on the track were considerable, the ones she faced in Hillsdale College classrooms were enormous. Hillsdale, a small, private, liberal arts college is known for its intense academic rigor. At Hillsdale, student-athletes aren't given any special considerations when it comes to their academic expectations. Oren thrived as an economics major, being named to the GLIAC Academic Excellence Team multiple times and earning the GLIAC Commissioner's Award twice, an award that honors outstanding achievement in athletics and academics.
Oren was also named to the CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-District Team and is a strong candidate for Academic All-American honors.
Although her track career has ended, her time at Hillsdale has not. She was hired by the college in the admissions department upon graduation.