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A Look Back at the 2019 APPSPYs

Appalachian State celebrated the 2018-19 year of student-athlete and athletic achievements at the APPSPYs awards banquet this week in the Holmes Center.
 
Dressed to impress, App State student-athletes, coaches, administrators and staff members gathered to recognize another year of outstanding accomplishments for the Mountaineers.
 
The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) organized the event, with football player Noah Hannon and baseball player Kaleb Bowman serving as the co-hosts. SAAC members voted on the awards and also presented them during the APPSPYs.
 
Men’s soccer senior Jake Chasteen received the prestigious Brakefield Award. Established by legendary App State football coach Jim Brakefield and his wife, Eloise, this award is given to a graduating student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average among all student-athletes.
 
Jillian Ulery, a second-year member of the field hockey team, received the Goodyear Family Athletic Scholarship. George and Anne Goodyear founded the scholarship in 1994 for a rising junior who has a minimum GPA of 2.0 and demonstrates strength of character in all that he or she does.
 
The Rick Edmundson Memorial Scholarship was presented to Blake Carter, a sophomore on the men’s tennis team. This scholarship is awarded annually to a rising junior or senior who has exhibited loyalty and dedication to Appalachian State. Candidates give evidence of leadership potential and intelligence, exhibit sound and purposeful ambition, are vigorous and diligent in pursuit of duty and show compassion for others. 
 
In the most emotional scene of the night, Jason Allison of App State men’s basketball presented senior Tyrell Johnson with the Mountaineer Courage Award. Allison praised the toughness and fight shown by Johnson when he was hospitalized late in his senior season and recalled the dedicated efforts of team members to visit him during his hospital stay.
 
The Team Academic Excellence Award went to women’s cross country, distance runner Hana Ratcliffe won the Laps for Apps Award and thrower Ashley Muschiatti received the Gerald Adams All for App Award. Rainey Dellinger won the Julia Adams Scholarship, and women’s soccer won the Mountaineer Moves Community Service Award.
 
Winners in categories that covered every App State sport or multiple sports also included women’s basketball player Madi Story (Female Student-Athlete of the Year and Best Individual Performance, for her buzzer-beating shot in the Sun Belt tournament), pole vaulter Tristian Shaver (Male Student-Athlete of the Year), women’s basketball coach Angel Elderkin (Coach of the Year), baseball player Luke Drumheller (Male Newcomer of the Year) and women’s distance runner Izzy Evely (Female Newcomer of the Year).
 
The Best Team Moment went to women’s cross country, which won the Sun Belt Conference Championship by one point over second-place Texas State, and women’s basketball received the award for Best Season. That team finished a 22-14 season by winning the WBI Championship in front of a record-breaking home crowd in Boone.
 
Athletic Trainer of the Year went to Maggie Berkowitz, Rob Hamlet was the winner of the Ron “Doc” Kanoy Award and Dr. Amanda Howell was voted Professor of the Year. Jason Freeman took home the Jack Branch Award, the football program’s Iron Unit award went to the linebackers and the football program also won the Lip Sync Award for its humorous take on “Beautiful Crazy” from App State alum Luke Combs.

Below is a complete list of the team MVPs from the 2019 APPSPYs. 
Men’s Indoor Track – Tristian Shaver 
Women’s Indoor Track – Phylissa Greeley 
Wrestling – Randall Diabe 
Men’s Soccer – Zeiko Harris 
Volleyball – Emma Longley 
Women’s Cross Country – Phylissa Greeley
Men’s Cross Country – Collin Loy 
Women’s Basketball – Madi Story 
Field Hockey – Veerle Van Heertum
Men’s Tennis – Milo Bargeron 
Women’s Soccer – Alexa Asher 
Men’s Basketball – Ronshad Shabazz 
Football – MyQuon Stout 
Women’s Golf – Joliana Elias 
Softball – Entire Team 
Women’s Tennis – Teodora Sevo  
Baseball, men’s outdoor track and field and women’s outdoor track & field MVPs will be determined once the spring season concludes.
 
Mountaineer Power Club winners by sport:
Baseball – Brandon Boone & CJ Brown
Men’s Basketball – Trey Ford
Women’s Basketball – Nicola Mathews
Cheer – Ben Bullins (Co-ed) & Ashley Giordano (Cheer)
Field Hockey – Rachel Gaines
Men’s Golf – Noah Schneider
Women’s Golf – Joliana Elias
Men’s Soccer – Alex McGrath
Women’s Soccer – Jessica Easley
Softball – Jenny Dodd
Men’s Tennis – Alex Brea
Women’s Tennis – Teodora Sevo
Track & Field – Tristian ShaverElliott Graves & Madison McCoy
Cross Country – Elisa Sargent
Volleyball – Emma Longley
Wrestling – Cary Miller