Milwaukee City Wire

Milwaukee Track & Field athletes Natalie Block and Golden Cotton have been named the 2024 Alfreeda Goff Outdoor Track & Field Athletes of the Year, as announced by the Horizon League Office. This recognition marks the tenth and eleventh occasions that a Milwaukee athlete has received this honor, with Austin Wallace being the most recent winner in 2022. Cotton joins Wallace, Durell Busby, Tyler Bucholz, Nick Gretz, and Nick Davis in achieving this distinction. Meanwhile, Block joins Melissa Kirchoff, Holly Nearman, and Tenia Fischer.

Block's achievement follows her win as the 2024 Alfreeda Goff Indoor Track & Field Women's Athlete of the Year. She becomes only the third woman in Horizon League history to win both indoor and outdoor awards in a single year. She follows Cassandra Lloyd of Wright State (2010-2011) and former Panther Tenia Fischer (2006).

It is rare for both men's and women's outdoor track & field athletes of the year to come from the same school within the Horizon League; it has happened only twice before. The last instance was in 2013 when Declan Murray and Candice Carajohn of Loyola were honored.

During this outdoor season, Block broke her own program record in the 400m hurdles four times. Her latest record-breaking time at the Clark Wood Invitational was 57.68 seconds, placing her 32nd nationally and qualifying for the US Olympic Trials. In addition to this feat, she improved her program record twice in the 100m hurdles with a notable performance of 13.14 seconds at Clark Wood Invitational despite not meeting Olympic qualifications due to wind conditions.

Cotton also delivered an impressive season highlighted by two record-breaking runs in the 100m dash at Clark Wood Invitational with times of 10.40 seconds during preliminaries and then achieving a final heat time of 10.29 seconds which ranks him highly both nationally and regionally.

At Clark Wood Invitational again, Cotton posted his best seasonal time for the 200m race at third place with a finish time of 21.15 seconds while contributing significantly to his team’s relay performance marking second fastest time historically for their program clocking at precisely forty point seventy seconds.

Both athletes lead their league events holding significant margins over competitors across different categories including Blocks’ leadership by substantial differences within hurdles races whereas Cottons' standing extends through sprints including relays across multiple metrics further acknowledged through weekly recognitions such as Runners Of The Week where block holds three instances while cotton notably achieved selection post-performance on April thirtieth prior upcoming participation anticipated during championships hosted Rochester Michigan commencing noon Friday concluding Sunday afternoon proceedings