San Jose State sophomore jumper, Emilia Sjostrand, was announced as the 2023 Mountain West Co-Women’s Indoor Track and Field Student-Athlete of the Year on Wednesday afternoon.
The title is given to the best male and female student-athletes for their indoor season in the Conference, according to the Mountain West website.
“It’s definitely a special award to get,” Sjostrand said. “It kind of summarizes the whole season and shows that I was consistent all the way through.”
Sjostrand is now the first student-athlete from SJSU to win this honor, after she finished seventh in the nation for the NCAA Indoor Championships Women’s Triple Jump. She also holds the school record for Women’s Long Jump with a mark of 6.48 meters.
Sjostrand is currently the best jumper in the history of Sweden, her home country, for the Triple Jump mark with a personal best record of 13.98m.
Charles Ryan, director of track & field, has 14 years of NCAA coaching experience.
Ryan said Sjostrand receiving the award is special, and a huge deal for her and the SJSU Track and Field program as a whole.
“Emilia is well deserving of that award and, you know, we’re extremely proud of the work that she’s put in this year,” Ryan said. “She’s the best athlete on our team right now and the leader . . . so we couldn’t be prouder.”
Off the track, Ryan said Sjostrand is still quick on her feet with a great sense of humor.
“I enjoy social banter time with Emilia because she is so smart and her sense of humor kind of matches mine,” Ryan said. “She’s just what you want a student athlete, at the collegiate level, to be.”
Sjostrand was also named Mountain West Women’s Field Athlete of the Week this week after she competed at the Cardinal Classic at Stanford University.
She took first place on Saturday in the Women’s Triple Jump with a mark of 13.92.
Ryan says Sjostrand is a leader because of her attention to detail and passion for honing her craft and being good at it.
“[Emilia] has well over a 3.0 GPA,” Ryan said. “She’s at practice every day, she does not miss, she doesn’t take day off [and] she goes hard in the weight room. If I can get 10 versions of Emilia on the women’s team, we win the national championship.”
Ryan said Sjostrand has been on the Women’s Track and Field roster since last January and instantly made a difference for the team.
He said she wasn’t ready for that level of competition in the NCAA preliminary round, but now she is one of the best in the nation.
“There’s really no ceiling on what Emilia can’t do in the sport,” Ryan said. “I fully expect her to be an All-American outdoors, potentially in more than one event [this year]. I expect her to be competing this summer, representing her national team for Sweden or straight up at the FTC championships in Budapest this year.”
Ryan said Sjostrand is talented enough to accomplish all of those things, and it can ultimately lead to competing as an Olympian in 2024.
“There’s really nothing holding her back,” Ryan said regarding her future as an Olympian. “All she has to do is continue to work the way that she does and stay healthy, and she could do whatever she wants in the sport.”
Sjostrand said she wants to build on the success from this season when she laces up her track shoes outdoors.
“For outdoors, I would like to win the conference again in long jump and triple jump,” she said.
