Calli Doan was voted Liberty’s first-ever ASUN Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women’s outdoor track & field, headlining the Flames’ nine ASUN All-Academic Team honorees.

Doan was joined on the women’s All-Academic Team by Naomi Armstrong, Meredith Engle, Taylen Langin and Noel Palmer. Meanwhile, all four of Liberty’s men’s All-Academic Team honorees are throwers who qualified for the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet (Christian Hicks, John Hicks, Ethan Mylin and Ben Shughart).

A native of Apex, N.C., Doan is also a three-time ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women’s cross country (spring 2021, fall 2021 and 2022). Doan owns a 4.0 GPA as she pursues a master’s degree in human performance after graduating with a 3.99 undergraduate GPA as an exercise science major.

The ASUN women’s steeplechase champion has set a pair of records this season, including the Liberty steeplechase record (9:57.15 at the Stanford Invitational) and the ASUN all-time 5K standard (15:51.38 at the Wake Forest Invitational). She will contest the steeplechase at the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet for the second time in her career.

Armstrong, who hails from Hartly, Del., owns a 4.0 GPA as she pursues a master’s degree in exercise science. She completed her undergraduate studies in exercise science with a 3.93 GPA. Armstrong wrapped up her collegiate career by placing seventh in the ASUN women’s 800 final with a season-best 2:10.36 effort. This is her first ASUN All-Academic Team appearance outdoors after making three consecutive All-Academic Teams indoors.

A Dillsburg, Pa., native, Engle is a computer science major with a 4.0 GPA. The ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year during the 2023 indoor track & field season placed third in the ASUN heptathlon, fourth in the triple jump and sixth in the javelin. Earlier in the season, Engle won Group B of the Bryan Clay Invitational heptathlon with a personal-best 5,205 points.

Langin, who comes from Meridian, Idaho, boasts a 3.90 GPA as she pursues a master’s degree in human performance. She previously graduated with a 3.96 GPA as an exercise science major. She is pole vaulting at the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet for the fourth time after capturing her third straight ASUN outdoor women’s pole vault title. Langin vaulted an ASUN all-time record 13-9.25 to win at the Bryan Clay Invitational. She has now made six straight ASUN All-Academic Team appearances dating back to the 2021 indoor campaign.

A native of nearby Forest, Va., Palmer owns a 4.0 GPA as she pursues a master’s degree in education. She also kept a 4.0 undergraduate GPA in biology education. This is Palmer’s eighth and final ASUN All-Academic Team appearance for her collegiate career between cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. She finished fifth in the ASUN 10K and ninth in the 5K.

A redshirt freshman from Romney, W.Va., Christian Hicks is a business finance and economics major with a 3.82 GPA. He finished fourth in the ASUN men’s discus with a personal-best mark of 176-4. That effort, which ranks No. 9 in program history, earned Hicks a trip to the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet. He also came in eighth in the ASUN men’s hammer final.

Older brother John Hicks, an exercise science major with a 3.78 GPA, is now a four-time ASUN All-Academic Team member between the indoor and outdoor seasons. He was the ASUN men’s hammer runner-up and took fifth in the discus with a personal-best 158-0 heave. Hicks has qualified for the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet in the men’s hammer for the third year in a row.

Mylin, a mechanical engineering major with a 3.84 GPA, hails from Lancaster, Pa. He captured the ASUN men’s javelin title with a personal-best and meet-record mark of 215-2. That effort punched his ticket to the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round meet.

Joining Mylin in the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round men’s javelin competition will be fellow sophomore Shughart, an interdisciplinary studies major from Shippensburg, Pa., with a 4.0 GPA. Shughart finished second to Mylin at the ASUN meet, continuing a breakthrough season which has seen his personal best jump from 167-10 to 214-9.

Featured in Main Photo: Calli Doan