Moon Township, Pa. - In a vote of Northeast Conference head coaches, Robert Morris University head outdoor track & field coach Michael Smith was named the 2011 NEC Men's Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year Tuesday.

Smith earns the honor after leading the Colonials to their highest finish in over a decade at the 2011 NEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships in West Long Branch, N.J.

RMU finished second and tallied 133 points, the program's highest point total since winning the 2000 outdoor track & field championship with 146.5.

Sacred Heart's Christian Morrison was voted the 2011 NEC Women's Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year.

It marks the second career NEC Coach of the Year accolade for Smith, who was also tabbed the 2006 NEC Men's Indoor Track & Field Coach of the Year.

In addition to the honor for Smith, a total of two student-athletes on the men's side and three student-athletes on the women's side earned spots on the 2011 All-NEC Rookie Team.

For the men, freshmen Nicolas Gentile (Sarver, Pa. / Freeport) and Chris Carper (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona) earned the accolade, while freshmen Rachel Kotula (East Berlin, Pa. / Bermudian Springs), Merel Van Steenbergen (Boskoop, Netherlands / Coenecopp College Waddinxveen) and Yulia Vasilyeva (Leningrad, Russia) garnered the honor for the women.

Carper earned the honor in both the 400-meter hurdles and the javelin, while Van Steenbergen also was a two-time honoree, taking home the accolade in both the 5,000 and 10,000-meter runs. Carper (javelin) and Van Steenbergen (10,000-meter) each also earned All-NEC Second Team honors.

Gentile finished third in the 800-meter with a time of 1:53.03 to claim All-NEC Rookie Team accolades, while Vasilyeva earned the honor after finishing eighth in the high jump with a leap of 1.58 meters (5'2.25").

Kotula was named to the All-NEC Rookie Team after finishing second in the javelin with a toss of 44.43 meters (145'9"), which also helped her earn a spot on the All-NEC Second Team.