Font Size: A A A

Sports Information Department BC

May 1, 2012

Bluefield College Athletics

Bluefield, Virginia

Sports Information Department

 

Bluefield, Virginia- On Wednesday evening on the campus of Bluefield College, the Rams Athletics department held its 3rd annual student-athlete awards ceremony banquet to honor this past season's accomplishments. 

 

Nicknamed "The Rammies", the banquet offer the coaches the opportunity to present awards and recognition to their respective athletes in a variety of categories for their participation in the 2011-2012 season. 

 

Furthermore, the event allows the Athletics department the chance to honor the student-athletes who have won national association and conference honors for their outstanding seasons. 

 

More importantly, Athletics Director Peter Dryer and his staff are given time to present awards to those excelled not only on the surface of competition but also in the classroom and in the community. 

 

There was much attention shown to the overall success of the Athletics department in a variety of sports as several teams had record-breaking years on both a program level and individual level.

 

Men's Soccer, Women's Basketball, Women's Tennis and Men's Tennis saw total wins break previous history marks, all with coaches with less than two years under their belts at Bluefield. Women's Basketball also finished with its highest national NAIA rankings in the history of the program, while finishing the final polls in the NCCAA as #6.

Men's Basketball found themselves deep into three overtimes in Regional play and just one step away from making an NCCAA National Championship appearance.

 

Women's soccer scored their quickest goal in program history in under :19 seconds in a match, as well as scoring seven more total goals from a season ago. While the Spring season still alive for Men's baseball, the Rams are still looking to make a dent in the conference tournament as well as securing a #1-seed in the Mid East Region for the chance to represent the region at the National College World Series. 

 

While many, many programs have been successful as a unit, there were several individual standout performances and Bluefield career marks highlighted on Wednesday evening at Bluefield. 

 

In Women's Volleyball, SR libero Yeda Duarte cleaned up her 2,000th career dig in her four seasons at Bluefield College, while also earning AAC Player of the Week honors during the season. 

 

Women's Basketball locked in several AAC and NCCAA weekly POW honors as well, but would also lock in all-season team awards for both league and region play with Takieya Rouse, Teqa McNeal and Kia Gillard. McNeal also received NCCAA All-American honorable mention. 

 

Two Lady Rams basketball players also snagged their 1,000th career points in the Bluefield history books including Takieya Rouse and Kia Gillard. 

 

Not to be out done in the sport of basketball, yet just as worthy, the men's basketball team also had stellar performances as well. Highlighting the evening was the presentation to Jr Bryon Carpenter. Carpenter was not only named to the NCCAA All-Region team, AAC Weekly honors, AAC 1st team and AAC Player of the Year, but also was named a 2012 NAIA All-American 2nd team member. 

 

Carpenter also snagged his 1,000th career point in a Bluefield jersey. But so did another. Senior sharpshooter Borgia M'bala landed his 1,000 point in his final season as a Ram. He will leave the program alongside four other seniors for Coach Morgan's side. 

 

Kearsten Marion was also named to AAC and NCCAA season team awards, as Andrew Wilson was awarded a selection on the AAC All-Freshman team. 

 

While Spring sports are capping off their final contests of the season, the baseball team has shown signs of explosiveness on offense and will remain to see if the Rams can pull off another trip to the World Series. The Rams offensive team MVP, Joe Gatewood, will look to help carry a portion of the load with 12 HR and 37 RBI. 

 

In a historic and exciting year in Bluefield College Athletics, the Rams will push forward in anticipation of even more success in 2012-2013 and carry the buzz of the first full season of college football at Bluefield since more than 70 years ago.

 

While football will not be the only sport being play come August, the Rams will say goodbye to the AAC and eagerly await games against programs in the highly talented Mid-South Conference. 

Awards from "The Rammies" were as followed: 

 

Cross Country

Best Male Runner – Jordan Owens

Best Female Runner – Kara Geogiades

Ram Effort – Sara Melby

 

Men's Soccer

Jacob Mader – All Conference 3^rd Team

James Gunn – All Conference 2^nd Team

Dan Turpin – Golden Ball

Jacob Mader – Golden Boot

Steve Melhorn- Ram Effort

 

Women's Soccer

Melissa  Hubbert – All-Academic 

Ashley Moreno – Defensive MVP

Braley Friere- Ram Effort

Courtney “Pip” Pattison – All Conference 3^rd Team,  Attacking MVP, Ram Effort

 

           

Volleyball

Kelsee Smith- Daktronics – NAIA Scholar Athlete, All – Academic AAC

Angie Highlander– NAIA Scholar Athlete, All – Academic AAC

Britny Paynter – All- Academic

Ashley Strickland – NAIA Scholar Athlete, All – Academic AAC , Most improved

Yeda Duarte – Defensive MVP

Megan Randall – All- Conference 2^nd Team, Offensive MVP

Hallie Elder – Ram Effort

 

Cheerleading

Lauren Johnson – Most Improved

Lacey Atwood – Most Spirited

Excellence in Leadership – Ashleigh Smith

Anna Sale – Ram Effort

 

Men’s Basketball

Lucas Shortridge- All Academic ACC

Ted O’Boute – Most improved

Andrew Wilson – All Freshman Team, Mr. Hustle Award

Kearston Marion – All Conference 2^nd Team, Unsung Hero

Byron Carpenter – 1^st Team All Conference, AAC Player of the Year, NAIA All-American 2^nd Team, Most outstanding Player

Borgia M’Bala – Most improved.

               

Women’s Basketball

Destiny “Showtime” Tolliver – Most improved

Takieya Rouse – All Region 2^nd Team NCCAA

Kia Gilliard – All Conference 2^nd Team, All – Region Honorable Mention NCCAA

Tequila McNeal – All Conference 2^nd Team, All Academic AAC, All Region 1^st Team NCCAA, NCCAA All-American Honorable Mention,  Ram Strong. 

Jade McDaniel – Ram Effort. 

 

Baseball

Tyler Snow – Most Improved

Kyle Long – Hustle Award

Joe Gatewood – Offensive MVP

B.J. Fritzinger – Ram Effort

 

Golf

Ryan Moody – Hustle Award and Ram Effort

 

Softball

Breanne Vencill- Most Improved

Amber MacDonald- Hustle

Heather Thomas – MVP

Megan Meismer – Ram Effort

 

Men’s Tennis

Tyler Eastep – Most improved

Chaz Stonestreet – Hustle

Jordan Owens – MVP

Matthew Moore – Ram Effort

 

Women’s Tennis

Julie Austin – Most improved

Caitlin Allen – Hustle

Casey Germain – MVP

Erica Creger – Ram Effort

 

Comments:

Leave a Comment:

Name: