Big South Announces 2015-16 Athletes of the Year
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Liberty track & field/cross country runner Ednah Kurgat (Eldoret, Kenya) and Coastal Carolina baseball pitcher Andrew Beckwith (Blythewood, S.C.) have been voted the Big South Conference Female and Male Student-Athletes of the Year for the 2015-16 season by the league’s Athletics Directors, Senior Woman Administrators and Sports Information Directors, it was announced today by the conference office.
Kurgat is the first Liberty student-athlete to win the conference’s Female Student-Athlete of the Year award since 2008-09, as she received 73 points and 10 first-place votes. She finished ahead of Winthrop track & field All-American Marthaline Cooper, who was second with 65 points (five first-place votes). Campbell golfer Nadine White was third with 36 points, followed by Longwood pitcher Elizabeth McCarthy (35 points). Coastal Carolina catcher Morgan Noad finished fifth in the voting with 33 points.
Beckwith earned 105 points and 14 first-place votes in capturing the Howard Bagwell Male Student-Athlete of the Year award, becoming the first baseball player since Mike Costanzo in 2005 to receive the honor. Beckwith finished ahead of All-American teammate Connor Owings (79 points) and High Point basketball player John Brown (76 points). Campbell track & field All-American Lawrence Kipkoech was fourth in the voting with 42 points, followed by Charleston Southern track & field athlete Braxton Drummond and Coastal Carolina All-American running back De’Angelo Henderson, who tied for fifth with 20 points.
Kurgat became the first female athlete in Liberty and Big South Conference history to earn NCAA Division I All-America honors in all three running sports during the same season in 2015-16. The 2015-16 Big South Women’s Track & Field Runner of the Year placed 12th at the 2015 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships -- the second-highest finish by a Big South female competitor in the national meet. She later finished ninth in the 5K at the 2016 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships and fourth in the 5K at the 2016 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Kurgat captured three Big South titles in 2015-16, including the indoor mile, indoor 3K and outdoor 10K. She set five school records this past year, including the cross country 5K (17:11.1), cross country 6K (20:06.7), indoor 3K (9:32.67), indoor 5K (15:47.89) and outdoor 5K (15:48.63). The indoor and outdoor 5K marks also broke the all-time Big South Conference records for those events. The 2015 Big South Women’s Cross Country Freshman of the Year, Kurgat was a two-time Big South Women’s Track Athlete of the Week (Feb. 17, April 20), and was named to the 2015 USTFCCCA Cross Country All-Academic Team.
Beckwith, an All-American and winner of the Gregg Olson Breakout Player of the Year, was named the Most Outstanding Player in leading Coastal Carolina to the NCAA Division I Baseball National Championship. He started and won all three games he pitched in the College World Series, with a pair of complete games and a 0.76 ERA -- tied for the fifth-best in CWS history among pitchers with at least 18 innings. He was the 12th player to ever notch three wins during the season’s final stage in Omaha. Overall in the NCAA postseason, Beckwith was 5-0 in five starts (six appearances) with a 1.96 ERA.
Beckwith finished the season with a 15-1 record -- the most wins in NCAA Division I since 2010 and tied for the most in a Big South single-season, in addition to a 1.85 ERA over 117 innings. Beckwith, who moved to the rotation in the second half of the Big South season, was tops with a 7-0 record and 0.76 ERA in conference games. Big South hitters managed just a .231 batting average off him with no home runs and five walks, and from March 16-April 25, he did not allow an earned run in 33.0 innings pitched.
In March 2000, the Big South Conference Executive Committee voted to create an annual Male and Female Student-Athlete of the Year award, and named the male award in honor of former Charleston Southern Athletic Director Howard Bagwell, who was one of the founders of the Big South Conference. The annual candidates for the award consist of the Players of the Year from each sport for the season most recently completed.
HOWARD BAGWELL MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
2015-16........ Andrew Beckwith, Coastal Carolina (baseball)
2014-15........ Quinn Backus, Coastal Carolina (football)
2013-14........ Lorenzo Taliaferro, Coastal Carolina (football)
2012-13........ Miguel Maysonet, Stony Brook (football)
2011-12........ Ashton Bennett, Coastal Carolina (soccer)
2010-11........ Sam Chelanga, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2009-10........ Sam Chelanga, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2008-09........ Sam Chelanga, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2007-08........ Josh McDougal, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2006-07........ Josh McDougal, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2005-06........ Josh McDougal, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2004-05........ Mike Costanzo, Coastal Carolina (baseball)
2003-04........ Joseph Ngwenya, Coastal Carolina (soccer)
2002-03........ Joseph Ngwenya, Coastal Carolina (soccer)
2001-02........ Justin Owens, Coastal Carolina (baseball)
2000-01........ Jason Colson, Winthrop (baseball)
1999-00........ Keith Butler, Liberty (baseball)
FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
2015-16........ Ednah Kurgat, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2014-15........ Megan Baltzell, Longwood (softball)
2013-14........ Dequesha McClanahan, Winthrop (basketball)
2012-13........ Brooke Short, Longwood (softball)
2011-12........ Gabrielle Houston, Charleston Southern (track & field)
2010-11........ Natalie Pearson, UNC Asheville (track & field)
2009-10........ Kristen Shifflett, Radford (softball)
2008-09........ Megan Frazee, Liberty (basketball)
2007-08........ Megan Frazee, Liberty (basketball)
2006-07........ Aruka Felgueroso, Coastal Carolina (golf)
2005-06........ Tiffany Evans, Radford (track & field)
2004-05........ Katie Feenstra, Liberty (basketball)
2003-04........ Katie Feenstra, Liberty (basketball)
2002-03........ Amber Campbell, Coastal Carolina (track & field)
2001-02........ Heather Sagan, Liberty (cross country/track & field)
2000-01........ Amber Campbell, Coastal Carolina (track & field)
1999-00........ Anthonia Akpama, Liberty (volleyball)