Conner Neu
2015-16
Track and Field
Senior Conner Neu earned first-team All-America honors at the 2016 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and currently ranks in the top-five nationally outdoors in the hammer throw with seven weeks left in the season. He joins an outstanding group of three throwers who have been named the YSU/The Vindicator Athlete of the Year.
Neu’s throws have kept him among the nation’s elite in both indoor and outdoor competition throughout his YSU career. For the Penguins, Neu owns the school mark indoors in the weight throw and outdoors in the hammer throw, his signature events.
This past March, Neu had a throw of 21.47 meters (70 feet, 5.25 inches) at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala. That mark placed him eighth as he earned first-team All-America honors. He is just the third YSU Track and Field Athlete in school history to be a first-team All-American, joining fellow Athletes of the Year Bobby Grace and Kurt Michaelis.
So far this spring he has a school-record throw of 70.96 meters in the hammer throw, which broke his previous mark of 66.19m that he set at the end of the 2014 season at the NCAA East Preliminaries. As of April 25, he ranks fourth in the country in event. The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships are in June.
Neu was dominant during his indoor career winning three consecutive Horizon League weight throw titles. As a sophomore in 2014 he won the event with a toss of 20.26 meters - winning by 1.82 meters. In 2015, he had a winning throw of 20.94 meters taking first by an impressive 2.85m. Most recently in 2016 he set a Horizon League record with a throw of 21.10m taking the title by 1.08m.
Outdoors he has been just as impressive winning two hammer throw titles and placing second in the discus on two occasions with one outdoor meet remaining.
In 2015, he had a winning toss of 62.62 meters which came on his last of six attempts. Going into the final throw he was in sixth place. In the discus, Neu had a throw of 48.07m which left him in second.
In 2014, he was over 60 meters on all six attempts before uncorking a final and best throw of 64.22m. He finished second in the discus with a toss of 48.94m.
He reached the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2014 placing 15th in the hammer throw with a toss of 63.61 meters. That throw earned him second-team All-America status. In 2015 he competed at the NCAA Regional for the second straight year.
Neu transferred to YSU after spending his freshman year at Kentucky.
A native of Brook Park, Ohio, he is the 2015-16 recipient of the Watson Family Scholarship. He is a physical education major and he maintains a 3.25 GPA.
