Connie among 2014 CCU athletics Hall of Fame
Also selected are Thigpen’s four-year teammate, kicker Josh Hoke, founding and longtime women’s cross country and track & field coach Alan Connie, and track standouts Diana Jepchirchir Mendes and Thomas Jordan.
The Statesville, N.C., native owns school career records for extra points made (177), extra points attempted (183), extra points percentage (.967), field goals made (40), field goals attempted (63) and punting average (37.21 yards).
He led the Big South in scoring with 83 points in 2004 and 80 points in 2005, led league kickers in scoring all four of his seasons and in field goals made in three years, and his 297 career points and 177 extra points were Big South records until 2011.
Connie retired in May after being on the ground floor of the women’s cross country and indoor and outdoor track & field programs.
He was head coach from the inception of the women’s cross country program in 1986 and women’s indoor track & field program in 1998, and was the associate head coach for the inaugural women’s outdoor track & field team in 1994 before becoming head coach in 1999.
Connie was named the 2004 Southeast Region Coach of the Year for indoor track & field and Big South Conference Coach of the Year 33 times, and he went out on top, as his programs captured the conference’s triple crown of 2013-14 championships in cross country and indoor and outdoor track for the fourth time in the past 10 years.
Jepchirchir Mendes ran cross country and track & field from 2006-08 and in’07 was named both the Big South’s Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Year and Most Outstanding Women’s Indoor Track & Field Athlete.
Jepchirchir began her collegiate career at the University of New Orleans, where she was named Sun Belt Cross Country and Indoor Track Runner of the Year after winning conference championships in cross country and four combined distance races in indoor and outdoor track.
Jordan was a javelin thrower on the men’s track & field teams in 2004 and ’06-08 and his seventh-place finish in the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship remains the highest national finish by a CCU men’s track & field athlete.
“He was a real hard-working guy and dynamic athlete,” said CCU men’s track & field coach Jeff Jacobs, who coached the 5-foot-9 Jordan for three years.