EAST STROUDSBURG - East Stroudsburg University senior Matt Tholis has been named the Division II Atlantic Region Men's Field Athlete of the Year by the USTFCCCA (U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association), it was announced Monday.

Tholis (Belle Mead, N.J./Montgomery) has the No. 3 mark in Division II in the javelin entering this week's NCAA Championships, which will be held Thursday through Saturday at Colorado State-Pueblo.

Tholis hit his career best and school record mark of 226-5 at Lafayette on March 30, part of a season in which he won the PSAC championship at 223-11 and is pursuing his second straight All-America honor after finishing seventh in the nation last spring.

He has hit three NCAA automatic qualifying marks this year and six straight marks of at least 210-0 entering the NCAA Championships. After opening with 197-4 at Washington & Lee, he had his throw of 226-5 at Lafayette, followed by 222-1 at Millersville, 210-0 at Bucknell, 216-2 at ESU's All-American Meet and 213-11 at the Penn Relays.

Tholis, an Exercise Science major, transferred to ESU from Rowan after qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championships in 2010.

ESU alumnus Quanette (Jester) Ford also earned USTFCCCA honors as the Atlantic Region Women's Assistant Coach of the Year. Ford, in her second year at Lincoln (Pa.), coached her women's jumpers to 33 points at the CIAA Championships and had two CIAA champions and NCAA provisional qualifiers in Diane Lindsey (long jump) and Morgan Heath (high jump).

Jester was the PSAC champion in the triple jump in 1998 and still holds ESU records in the triple jump both indoors (37-7) and outdoors (39-5 3/4).