After breaking school records and winning individual and team championships in her first three years at Wittenberg, Tiffany Hix has been honored with one of the most prestigious awards that can be bestowed upon a Tiger student-athlete. On April 1, Wittenberg Director of Athletics Brian Agler gathered Hix's Wittenberg Track and Field teammates together to surprise Hix with an announcement that she has been selected as the University's female North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Scholar-Athlete Award honoree for the 2024-25 school year.

Instituted by the NCAC during the 1990-91 school year, the Scholar-Athlete Award annually recognizes one male and one female student-athlete from each member institution for outstanding academic and athletic achievement. Women's track and field student-athletes have won the female award two straight years, as Hix follows teammate and current senior Meghan Frazier, who was selected last year.

Hix will be recognized at two upcoming events along with Wittenberg's male NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award-winner for 2024-25, baseball standout Alex Nemunaitis. The award-winners are announced each year during the Honors Convocation, which takes place this year on Friday, April 4, and Hix and Nemunaitis will formally receive the awards during the Ezry Awards, which takes place this year on Monday, May 5.

"I am very honored and humbled to receive this award that recognizes both my work in the classroom and in the Wittenberg track and field program," Hix said. "This award wouldn’t be possible without the incredible support I have received from all of my coaches and all of my professors.

"One of the things that stands out about Wittenberg to me is how flexible and understanding coaches are about academic responsibilities needing to be met, and how understanding our professors are about the rigorous demands of our practice and competition schedules. Everyone at Wittenberg is truly invested in both the academic and athletic success of our student-athletes."

Hix is majoring in exercise science at Wittenberg, and she has compiled a grade point average 3.91 through the middle of her junior year. The NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award is the latest academic honor Hix has earned after she was named an All-Academic Athlete by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA), Academic All-District by the College Sports Communicators (CSC), and she was named to the NCAC Academic Honor Roll for the 2023-24 school year.

Hix enjoyed a record-breaking 2023-24 season that saw her sweep the NCAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships in the pole vault, and she also earned an All-NCAC accolade in the triple jump at the Outdoor Championships. She earned NCAC Athlete of the Week honors twice during the 2023-24 season, and she also earned USTFCCCA All-Region recognition in the outdoor triple jump. Along the way, Hix broke school records in the outdoor pole vault (3.60 meters) and outdoor triple jump (11.59 meters), and she closed the year tied for 41st nationally in the indoor pole vault and ranked 41st in the triple jump and tied for 43rd in the pole vault during the outdoor season.

"Tiffany is a great example of what a student-athlete represents," said Wittenberg Men's and Women's Track & Field Head Coach Paris Hilliard. "She has done a great job of balancing all aspects of college. I am extremely proud of her and her accomplishments."

Hix has battled through injuries to add to her lengthy list of achievements during the 2024-25 season. An Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) state qualifier in track as a pole vaulter and also as a gymnast at Elgin High School in Marion, Ohio, Hix earned another All-NCAC award at the 2025 Indoor Championships after placing second in the pole vault.

As much as she has accomplished already at Wittenberg, Hix is looking forward to a big finish to the 2024-25 season and further embracing a leadership role as a senior in 2025-26.

"When I visited Wittenberg, I was impressed with the facilities and with the people. Coming from a small high school it made it much easier for me to transition to a smaller university," Hix said. "Azad Robinson was one of the first people I met when I visited Witt, and his energy and enthusiasm for Wittenberg was contagious. Several of us on the track team have tried to maintain that level of energy and enthusiasm and pass it along to the underclassmen. Our track program has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success during my time at Wittenberg, and I am very proud and happy to be a small part of an incredible team.

"I hope that the example I set while I’m at Wittenberg leads future athletes to believe that they can accomplish both their athletic and academic goals if they are willing to put work in that is required."

Written By: Ryan Maurer