FOREST, Va. --- A pair of familiar and highly decorated student-athletes collected the final athletic awards of the 2011-12 campaign.  Roanoke College's Carmen Graves and Lynchburg College's James Bell were named the ODAC Track & Field Athletes of the Year for the second straight season in a vote of the league's coaches.  Bell earned the honor outright in 2011 while Graves shared her accolade with LC's Jessica Gibbs a year ago.

Graves, a junior from Christiansburg, Va., has put together a banner third year at Roanoke.  A two sport athlete (soccer), Graves earned All-American status twice at the NCAA Division III indoor and outdoor championships, won ODAC Athlete of the Meet honors at both the indoor and outdoor conference meets, and was named the South/Southeast Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year.

Outdoors, Graves placed fourth at the NCAA championships with a time of 2:08.45 in the 800-meter run.  She won that event and two others amongst the five she participated in at the conference meet.  She captured crowns in the 800-meter (2:17.57) and 1,500-meter (4:43.08) runs, and joined teammates Hope Flomo, Rachel Dellehunt and Sarah Witt in winning the 4x400-meter relay (3:58.71).  She also placed third in both the long (5.11 meters) and triple (10.81 meters) jumps.  Her times in the 1,500 and 4x400 set new ODAC championship records.

Indoors, Graves posted a time of 2:13.93 to place third in the 800-meter run at the NCAA championships.  During the preliminary heats, she stopped the watches in 2:11.77, which set the facility record at host Grinnell College.  Graves' success began at the ODAC championships where she won the 400-meter dash (58.78) and 800-meter run (2:20.18).  She also placed second in the triple jump (11.05 meters) and third in the long jump (5.21 meters).=