EAST STROUDSBURG - East Stroudsburg University senior Christina O'Connor has been named the USTFCCCA Atlantic Region Women's Indoor Field Athlete of the Year, and Karen Gaita is the Women's Assistant Coach of the Year, the organization has announced.
 
O'Connor is tied for third in the nation in the high jump entering the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships this weekend in Birmingham, Alabama.

She cleared 5-10, tied for the PSAC record, to win her fourth career PSAC championship on May 1 at Edinboro.

Gaita, a 1991 ESU graduate and the NCAA DII outdoor champion as a senior, repeats as the women's indoor assistant coach of the year. She helped O'Connor break her own school record at the PSAC championships.

O'Connor broke ESU's indoor mark of 5-9 1/4 set by Gaita in 1991, and tied by six-time All-American Lynn Mayer in 2011.

O'Connor tied the conference record set by Maureen Fitzpatrick (West Chester) in 1977.

She enters her fourth trip to the NCAA DII Championships seeking her third career All-America honor. She was sixth indoors as a sophomore in 2013, and fifth outdoors in 2014.

O'Connor ranked first in the PSAC at 5-8, set at the Armory in New York City on January 30, entering the PSAC Championships and her conference record-tying mark. She won individual titles at Kutztown, ESU's DeSchriver Invitational, Susquehanna and Kutztown during the regular season.

Gaita, in her 18th season as an assistant coach at ESU, has coached seven PSAC champion high jumpers, five All-Americans and nine national qualifiers in her career between the men's and women's programs.

Along with winning the 1991 NCAA DII outdoor title, she was a two-time national runner-up on her way to four All-America honors. She was also a three-time PSAC champion. Gaita still holds the outdoor school record (5-10) set in 1990.