SAU Sports Information
The Southern Arkansas University Athletic Department honored the accomplishments of its student-athletes during the course of the 2016-17 athletic year as it hosted the Inaugural "Mulespy Awards" on Wednesday night inside a transformed W.T. Watson Center.
The event, which mirrored the format of popular awards show such as the ESPYs, was a remarkable success in its first year.
A total of 22 awards were handed out with 14 Outstanding Athlete/Student Awards being presented to all 12 sports at SAU as well as Athletic Training and Cheerleading. Alongside those presentations, all of the senior student-athletes and athletic trainers received a senior gift on behalf of Mulerider Athletics.
Four new awards were also given out as categories of Male and Female Newcomer of the Year and Male and Female Comeback Player of the Year were inaugurated. Traditional and prestigious awards such as the Murphy USA Male and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Dr. Margaret Downing Female Athlete of the Year and the Auburn Smith Male Athlete of the Year were given out to close the program.
SAU Alumnus Jordan Babineaux served as a special guest speaker and Nathaniel Doddrige, Director of Fuels Marketing for Murphy USA, was also on hand to help present the Murphy USA Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards, which were officially tagged that evening with Murphy USA as the title sponsor, strengthening a partnership with SAU.
Various comedic video segments also played throughout the evening and a Senior Tribute video was shown at the very end of the event.
The following is a list of the award winners from the evening with additional information provided for the main awards:
Auburn Smith
Male Athlete of the Year
• Trevor Rucker currently leads the Great American Conference in nine (9) offensive categories and has been a key contributor in helping the Mulerider Baseball team capture its fourth GAC Regular Season Championship.
Among the stat categories that Rucker leads the league in, he notably tops in Batting Average, Doubles, Triples, Home Runs, Slugging and On-Base Percentage
Rucker also currently ranks in the Top-5 in all of NCAA Division II in Hit-By-Pitch and Slugging Percentage.
To this point of the season, Rucker is posting career bests in average, runs scored, doubles, triples, home runs, runs batted in, slugging and on-base percentage.
Dr. Margaret Downing
Female Athlete of the Year
• Maddie Dow is one of the most feared hitters not only in the GAC, but in the country as she boasts eye-popping offensive numbers across the board.
Currently, Dow ranks in the Top-3 of the Great American Conference in nine (9) offensive categories. Of those, she leads the league in Slugging and On-Base Percentage, Runs Batted In, Home Runs, Walks, Hit-By-Pitch, and Total Bases. A three-time all-region honoree, Dow currently leads NCAA Division II in home runs this season with 20. She is also currently the active leader in D2, and second overall regardless of division, in Career Home Runs with 72.
Additionally, Dow currently ranks in the Top-10 of Division II in five other major offensive categories.
Murphy USA Male
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
• Kyle Gordon is an Accounting major with a 3.50 GPA
He has made SAU's Dean's List four (4) times and has earned GAC All-Academic Team honors twice with a third inclusion to come at the end of the year
An All-GAC Honorable Mention Selection this year, Gordon has played in all 24 rounds for the Muleriders in 2016-17 and has posted a 74.0 stroke average. That mark is currently the second-best scoring average for the program in the NCAA D2 era
The individual medalist at the Oklahoma Baptist Invitational this fall, Gordon has shot a program-record nine rounds at par or better, with six of those being scores under par.
Murphy USA Female
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
• Maddie Dow, is an Athletic Training major with a 3.87 GPA.
A CoSIDA Academic All-America Second-Team selection a year ago, Dow is also a three-time NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete, a GAC Crafton Tull Distinguished Scholar, and has been named twice to the GAC All-Academic Team with a third inclusion to come at the end of the year. Recently named as SAU's Outstanding Student for the College of Education, Dow has made SAU's Dean's List four (4) times and its President's List three (3) times.
A four-year starter for the Lady Muleriders, Dow currently holds nine (9) career records and is the only player in program history to have multiple seasons with 20 or more home runs
Male Newcomer
of the Year
• Jacob Richardson currently ranks in the Top-10 in the Great American Conference in nine (9) offensive categories including: Hits, RBIs, Doubles, and Homeruns. Earlier this season, Richardson set a new Great American Conference record for Consecutive Games with a Hit after successfully hitting in 28-straight games. His newly established conference record now sits at 30 games. Richardson also turned in an impressive on-base streak as he reached base safely in the Muleriders' first 40 games of the season
Female Newcomer
of the Year
• Victoria Tylor currently ranks in the Top-10 in the Great American Conference in seven (7) pitching categories including: Earned Run Average, Wins, and Strikeouts.
Her 1.80 (one-point-eight-zero) Earned Run Average ranks seventh in the GAC and her 16 wins in the circle are a Top-5 mark
Totaling 160 strikeouts to date, Taylor is already in the Top-10 of the Lady Mulerider Softball record book in both single season and career strikeouts
Male Comeback Player of the Year
• Keeton Tennison had a breakout season as a junior for the Mulerider Basketball team as he dedicated himself to training on and off the court, resulting in dramatically improved stats across the board.
After only averaging just nine (9) minutes played per game as a sophomore, Tennison averaged 25 minutes per contest and drew eight starts as a junior.
Tennison also improved upon his scoring average by tripling his output from 3.3 points per game to 9.6 this past season, while shooting better than 38% from the floor and 88% from the free throw line.
Female Comeback Player of the Year
• Jill Roye transferred to SAU in the Fall of 2015. During that semester, Roye suffered a complete tear of her ACL while throwing a bullpen session causing her to miss all of the 2016 season. After a lengthy rehab, Roye returned to the diamond this season and she has been a force at the plate and stifling in the circle. As a hitter, Roye is among the GAC leaders in Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, and Home Runs. In the circle, she has been one of the top relievers in the league with three (3) saves, a 1.31 (one-point-three-one) Earned Run Average, while limiting opponent's to a .175 (one seventy-five) batting average in 37 and a third innings pitched.
Outstanding Athletes
Trevor Rucker
De'Sean Dockery
Kimberly Crown
Doug Palmer
Claudine Blancaflor,
Elizabeth Mangus
Michael Nunnery
Kyle Gordon
Helle Leed
Brooke Goad
Quincy Flowers
Justice Reliford
Alli O'Banion,
Keith Birchfield,
Seniors
Athletic Training
Guadalupe Aparicio
Keith Birchfield
Miranda Cuff
Maddie Dow
Philip Loydy Sandlin
Yuichi Takizawa
Baseball
Dalton Algiene
David LaFleura
Josey Langston
Makenzy Larsen
Houston, Texas
Trevor Rucker
Eric Schildt
Women's Golf
Gabriela Clemences
Men's Basketball
Babajide Aina
Tony Aska
De'Sean Dockery
Denarious Lockhart
Women's Basketball
Caroline Gnan Ficher
Makaila Jordan
Faith Rolen
Men's XC/Track and Field
Malcolm Cambron
Xavier Cooper
Chenier Gardner
Ismael Gonzalez
Jose Guevara
Andre Mackey
Doug Palmer
Football
Jared Brown
Marquon Edmond
Mark Jenkins
Calvin Lyons
Chris Paul
AJ Ray
Daven Reese
Q'Niko Thomas
Men's Golf
Kyle Gordon
Dalton Johnson
Luke Williams
Softball
Tyler Casada
Miranda Cuff
Maddie Dow
Kaylee Garner
Peyton Jenkins
Reagan Patterson
Volleyball
Brittney Johnson
Serena LeDuff
Paige Mays
Kaitlyn Reiner
Hannah Rice.