The Old Dominion Athletic Conference has announced its award recipients for the 2025 outdoor track & field season and Roanoke junior Ophelia Ladner was selected as the winner of the ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Scholar-Athlete award for women’s track & field. Additionally, the Maroons earned All-ODAC honors in nine events on the men’s side and nine more in the women’s competition, based on their performances at the conference outdoor championships in Harrisonburg, Va., on April 25-26.
Ladner maintains a 3.913 grade point average as a sociology major with a minor in literary studies and a concentration in publishing and editing. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Delta, Alpha Lambda Delta and the Public Affairs Society. She has earned President’s List, Dean’s List and Athletic Honor Roll accolades over her three years. Ladner has also received the Max Weber Paper Award, the Giordano Family Scholarship and the Bergeson Memorial Scholarship, and she was a 2023-24 CSC Academic All-District honoree.
On the track, Ladner set both Roanoke and ODAC championship meet records with a victorious time of 1:01.93 in the 400m hurdles in Harrisonburg, and she joined teammates Mae Kaufman, Maryrose Molina-Shuman and Lindsey Hobin in winning the 4×400 relay.
Ladner was one of a group of Maroons who competed in the Lee Last Chance meet at the Ray Conn Sports Complex in Cleveland, Tennessee last Saturday. Ophelia recorded a fifth-place showing in the 400m hurdles with a mark of 1:02.39. Her school-record time of 1:01.93, set at High Point University’s VertKlasse Meeting in early April, currently ranks 14th in Division III.
The Maroons’ 4×100 relay squad of Nalonda Henderson, Eleanor Hinckley, Mae Kaufman and Lindsey Hobin produced a season-best time of 47.42 seconds, placing fifth overall. Their time ranks in the Top 50 nationally.
For the men, the 4×100 relay quartet of Amari Carter, Drew Bitzer, Bryson Hill and Brady Fowler logged a time of 40.91 seconds to finish third overall. Their season-best mark of 40.86 seconds is currently tied for 20th in the NCAA.
Fowler finished fifth in the 200m, clocking in at 21.42 seconds. He is tied for 18th in the country with a season-best time of 21.20 seconds, set at the Raleigh Relays back in March. In the prelims of the 100m, Fowler finished seventh in 10.61 seconds, while Carter came in 12th at 10.81. Both athletes rank in the Top 20 in the event nationally.
