NEW ORLEANS—Senior middle distance runner McKenna Keegan (West Grove, Pa.) was named the Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Track Athlete of the Year in an announcement made on Thursday afternoon by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA). Keegan has competed in two meets during the 2021 indoor season and is a qualifier in the 800 meters for the NCAA Championships which take place next week in Fayetteville, Ark.
 
This is the 13^th straight year that Villanova has had at least one of its women's track & field athletes named a Mid-Atlantic Region Athlete of the Year in either cross country, indoor track & field or outdoor track & field. It is the first career regional honor for Keegan, a veteran member of the Wildcats sprint and distance groups who is already a three-time All-American and a four-time BIG EAST champion during her collegiate career.
 
Keegan is ranked 12^th nationally in the 800 meters with a qualifying time of 2:04.21 entering next week's national championships. She most recently competed at the Husky Field Event Challenge in Connecticut on February 27 and recorded a raw time of 2:05.64 on a 200-meter flat track. That mark, which is itself an indoor personal best for Keegan, was converted down to her qualifying time which secured her spot in the NCAA field. Keegan also ran the 800 meters earlier this season at the Camel City Invitational and recorded a raw time of 2:07.67 on a 300-meter flat track.
 
The uniqueness of the current season amidst a global pandemic has extra meaning for Keegan, who redshirted the 2019 outdoor collegiate season and ran unattached during the 2020 indoor campaign to sync up her remaining indoor and outdoor eligibility. She did compete in the Villanova lineup throughout the 2019 cross country season, but then saw the 2020 outdoor collegiate campaign wiped out by the COVID pandemic.
 
Keegan competed at the indoor NCAA Championships as a freshman in 2017 and as a junior in 2019, both times running the 800 meter leg of the Wildcats distance medley relay. The relay squad earned first team All-America accolades in 2019 and second team All-America accolades two years earlier. Keegan was also an individual qualifier for the outdoor NCAA Championships in the 800 meters in 2018 when she garnered honorable mention All-America acclaim.
 
Villanova head coach Gina Procaccio has had her student-athletes be named the Mid-Atlantic Region Track Athlete of the Year a total of 22 times, including seven times during the indoor track & field season. The last Wildcats runner to receive the honor indoors was Keegan's former teammate Angel Piccirillo who earned the accolade in consecutive seasons in 2015 and 2016.
 
The semifinal heats in the women's 800 meters at the NCAA Championships will be contested at 8:55 p.m. Eastern time (7:55 p.m. Central time) on Friday, March 12 at Randal Tyson Track in Fayetteville, Ark. The national championships air live on ESPN3.