ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia University is pleased to announce that Diahn Zeon and Zoraa Quoie are this week's CU Athletes of the Week. Zeon, a Golden Bear track & field athlete, shot into national attention in the long jump last weekend, while Quoie was the top-performing women's basketball player. This is the first CU Athlete of the Week award of the year for Zeon and the second for Quoie.
Diahn Zeon (So., Edina, Minn.) reached a career high and NCAA provisional mark in the long jump on Saturday afternoon at the MSU Open. With a leap of 23 feet, 9.5 inches, Zeon bursted to the top of the NSIC standings and put up the 9th best mark in the NCAA this season. He cleared the previous CU career record, his own record from the 2009 season, by 2.25 inches. Furthermore, Zeon is just two inches away from ensuring himself a place in the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships with an automatic-qualifying mark.
Just a sophomore, Zeon made a trip to the NCAA Championships last season as a freshman. His previous career best jump of 23 feet, 7.25 inches got him into the Championships ranked 9th in the nation and one of 14 participants in the event. He has several more opportunities to improve upon his mark and move even further in the current national rankings before the Championships selection takes place in March. Six student-athletes from around the nation have already posted automatic-qualifying marks. Zeon's 23-9.5 jump is 1.25 inches ahead of the 10th-ranked athlete, 0.75 inches from the 8th-ranked and 13 inches from the best mark in the nation this season.
Junior guard Zoraa Quoie (Woodbury, Minn.) averaged 14.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game over two NSIC games last weekend. Quoie came off of the bench for 19 points in a huge win over Augustana College on Friday night. She shot 50% from the field and hit 4-of-7 three-pointers (.571) against the Vikings, also pulling down five boards and dishing four assists.
Quoie added another five assists on Saturday evening and pulled away three steals. On the season, she has 9.9 points per game. She is Concordia’s steals leader with 44 swipes on the year. She ranks 2nd in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with a 2.50 assist/turnover ratio, which is also an NCAA top-10 mark in the category.
