Top Athletes Since 2000 | Kirby Blackley

Since we can't play sports, we have decided to look back on the past 20 years and highlight some of the best student-athletes to wear the Orange and Black since 2000. Next up is former track and field national champion, Kirby (Blackley) Overton.

Kirby is one of the most decorated athletes to ever wear the Findlay uniform, competing for the Oilers track and field team from 2005-08, and was voted the NCAA Division II Female Athlete of the Year in 2008.

She capped her career with a pair of national titles at the 2008 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field National Championship. Overton won the long jump and 100-meter hurdles at the event and later went on to receive the NCAA Top VIII Award, one of the highest honors an athlete can receive. The award is given to eight student-athletes across all divisions based on athletic ability and achievement, academic achievement and character, leadership and extra-curricular activity involvement. Kirby was also a finalist for the 2008 NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Among her many accomplishments on the track, Kirby was named the 2008 Indoor and Outdoor Midwest Region Athlete of the Year, the 2008 Indoor and Outdoor Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Athlete of the Year and the 2005 GLIAC Field Athlete of the Year. She was also an Academic All-American during the 2007-08 season and won 14 GLIAC championships during her tenure with the Oilers.  Kirby was also named All-American ten times while being voted Academic All-GLIAC three times.

Following her collegiate career she went on to qualify for the USA Indoor Championships in the 60-meter hurdles in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and in the pentathlon in 2009 and 2010. A member of the NCAA Division II Track and Field Hall of Fame, Kirby currently serves as an assistant professor of business and coordinator of leadership and development programs at the University of Findlay.