MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Southern States Athletic Conference released its 2023 SSAC men's track and field award winners on Wednesday, and Talladega College was represented on the list of superlatives.

Freshman Christian Louis was named the conference's Track Athlete of the Year after an outstanding campaign that saw the rookie qualify for the NAIA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Louis qualified in both the 60-meter dash and in the 200-meter dash, and he was one of only three athletes in the NAIA to qualify for multiple events with "A" standards as a freshman. In that group, Louis was the only one to do so in sprint events.

Louis got his freshman campaign off to a fantastic start at the Tornadoes' first event of the 2022-23 indoor schedule. On December 2 at the Birmingham Southern College Icebreaker, the Birmingham native hit "A" standards in the 60 and the 200 in his first collegiate meet. His qualifying time of 6.82 seconds in the 60-meter dash held up as the 17th best time recorded in the NAIA this season, and his 200 time (21.76) finished as the 19th best mark of the campaign. Among freshmen, those marks were even more impressive, as his 60 time was tied for the best in the NAIA, and his 200 time was the second quickest.

Louis and teammate Emmanuel Niang will next head to the NAIA Indoor Track and field Championships in Brookings, S.D. The meet is slated to take place at the Sanford Jackrabbit Athletic Complex on the campus of South Dakota State University from March 2-4. The preliminary heats for both of Louis' events are slated for March 3 at 2:35 p.m. (60-meter Dash) and 5:00 p.m. (200-meter Dash) with the finals in the events scheduled for March 4 at 2 p.m. and 3:25 p.m., respectively. The Championships can be followed with pay-per-view live video coverage here.