From staff reports

sports@joplinglobe.com

Missouri Southern’s Patty Vavra and Jessica Selby-Tallman have earned postseason honors for indoor track and field.

Vavra has been named the MIAA Women’s Indoor Track and Field Coach of the Year.

Selby-Tallman, a senior, has been selected as the South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year.

Vavra and Selby-Tallman are part of the Missouri Southern contingent bound for Mankato, Minn., and the NCAA Division II national championships, which begin Friday. The Lions have seven individual qualifiers — four on the women’s team and three on the men’s team — for the national meet.

Vavra led the Southern women to the MIAA championship at the Lions’ Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. The Lions’ 118 points — to 102 for runnerup Emporia State — were equally divided between the field events and running events.

Vavra was also named the MIAA cross country coach of the year after the Lions cruised to the conference title.

She’s won a total of five MIAA coach of the year awards, two in track and three more in cross country.

Selby-Tallman is a four-time MIAA champion in the shot put and enters the national meet as the favorite with a best throw of 51 feet, 9 inches. She was second in the D-2 championships as a junior.

Selby-Tallman also qualified for nationals in the weigh throw — including her first conference victory in that event— but passed on the opportunity participate in both events in Mankato in order to concentrate on the shot.

Selby-Tallman, who attended Reeds Spring High School, swept indoor and outdoor regional athlete of the year honors last season.

Southern’s other national meet qualifiers are seniors Erica Culver, Russell Ellis and Jacob Williams (pole vault), junior Jessica Self (weight throw) and sophomores Kimi Shank (5,000-meter run) and Corey Reynolds (high jump).