Turner Named Academic All-American by CSC

The 2024-25 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America Men's Track and Field/Cross Country Teams have been announced. Doane's Zach Turner has been selected to the NAIA First Team list, a year after making the Second Team list.

The list consisted of 20 student-athletes, 11 on the First Team and nine on the Second Team. Turner is one of three student-athletes selected who were on the list a year ago. He is Doane's first repeat honor since Brad Higgins and Vince Krejci earned back-to-back nods in 2012 and 2013.

The year belonged to Turner as he walked away with three national championships in three individual races. He added two All-American performances in relays as well. His final meet resulted in being named the NAIA Most Valuable Performer and Men's Performance of the Meet honors.

His final year started at home with a first place finish in the Scott Nisely Invite, winning the 60m hurdles in a time of 7.89. Turner took third at the Nebraska Graduate Classic with a time of 7.88 and it would mark the last time he lost a hurdles race during the indoor season. He won the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) 60m hurdles in a meet record time of 7.75 and followed up by tying the NAIA record with a mark of 7.70 in the finals to claim his first national title.

The outdoor season started with an NAIA record time of 13.49 in the 110m hurdles for all weather conditions (the wind reading was over the eligible limit to qualify for the national standings). He added two more victories in the event as well as a 400m hurdles win heading into the Drake Relays.

In Des Moines, Iowa, he won the 400m hurdles with a time of 50.81 and took third in the 110m hurdles with a time of 13.84 after running a prelims time of 13.66. Once again, it would be the last time he lost a hurdles race during the season. He won the GPAC Championships in the 110m hurdles with a time of 13.77 and followed with a school-record and meet-record time of 49.99 in the 400m hurdles. At the Concordia Twilight, he blitzed the field in the 110m hurdles with the fastest wind-eligible time in the NAIA with a mark of 13.52, also an NAIA record.

At the national championships, Turner won the 110m hurdles with a time of 13.72 and followed with a victory in the 400m hurdles with a time of 51.08.

Turner was named the USTF-CCCA NAIA Men's Track Athlete of the Year in addition to his NAIA honors. He was a three-time GPAC and NAIA Athlete of the Week during the season and was named the M-F Athletic Men's National Athlete of the Week on three occasions, the first Doane honoree in program history for the honor.