ABILENE – Junior linebacker Sam Denmark and senior forward Suzzy Dimba Monday were recognized as Abilene Christian's top male and female student-athlete for the 2016-17 academic year at the annual Student-Athlete Awards Banquet.
Denmark is the 12th gridiron star to receive the Paul Goad award in its 39-year history. This past season Denmark earned first team all-Southland Conference honors after finishing second in the league in total tackles (111) and tackles per game (10.1) and tied for third in solo tackles (48). He now has 326 career tackles and will enter his senior season of 2017 needing just 63 tackles to break Ryan Boozer's career tackles record of 388.
Junior linebacker Sam Denmark
Denmark recorded four games last season with double-digit tackle totals, including a season-high 17 vs. Northern Colorado on Sept. 10, and 16 more in the Wildcats' win over Northwestern State in ACU's final home game at Shotwell Stadium.
Denmark was the first football player to win the Goad Award since John David Baker in 2014, a short wait compared to women's basketball, which went 13 years between honorees Melanie Carter and Dimba. Carter won the award twice in her four-year career with the Wildcats, the last coming as a senior in 2004.
Within the Southland Conference this past season no single player had more of an impact across all 94 feet of the basketball court than Dimba. She ranked among the league leaders in seven categories, including scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks, and was voted First Team All-Southland Conference for the first time in her career in addition to being tabbed to a fourth consecutive Southland Conference All-Defensive team
The Lubbock native additionally moved into the school's top-five career rebounders list with 965 this past season and left the program ranked as one of the Southland Conference's all-time top-10 leaders with 194 blocks, 33 double-doubles and 3,661 minutes played.
Suzzy appeared on stage a second time tonight with her senior classmates – Lizzy Dimba, Alexis Mason and Sydney Shelstead – to receive the coveted Horizon Award, which has been sporadically presented to ACU's marquee student-athletes over the past decade.
The Horizon Award is given to those student-athletes whose single-season efforts result in noteworthy career achievements, and in 2008, its first recipients were cross country / track and field All-America Nicodemus Naimadu and NFL draft pick Bernard Scott. Since then the award has only been presented four times with the most recent winner being soccer player Andrea Carpenter in 2014.
The four seniors were recognized for their outstanding achievements, which includes consecutive Southland Conference regular-season championships in 2016 and 2017 and accompanying trips to the WNIT. The Wildcats went 23-9 this past season, tied Central Arkansas for the league's best record at 16-2, and won their first WNIT postseason tournament game at Oklahoma State, 66-56.
For their career, this decorated senior class won 84 games for ACU with 5,740 points, 537 3-pointers, 3,054 rebounds, 899 assists, 335 blocks and 728 steals. They've also collected seven all-conference citations, four, 11 Southland Conference Player of the Week awards, two CoSIDA Academic All-District certificates and four Southland Conference All-Academic plaudits.
Lizzy Dimba also was honored individually by Director of Sports Medicine Adam Ybarra as the department's Comeback Student-Athlete of the Year. Dimba missed the last month of the 2015-16 season with a torn ACL, but recovered in time to start all 32 games and set career season highs in most categories, including points, rebounds and 3-point field goals made.
Lizzy Dimba – Comeback Student-Athlete of the Year
Among Lizzy's season highlights were scoring 21 points vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (21), and pulling down a career single-game high 15 rebounds in second game vs. Incarnate on March 1 at home on Senior Night. She additionally was named to the Shocker Winter Classic All-Tournament Team and was voted to her first postseason Southland Conference team (third team) after ranking 14th in league scoring, sixth in rebounding, 12th in field-goal percentage(.473), 11th in offensive rebounds (2.6) and sixth in defensive rebounds (5.2).
Three other members of the senior class won the second editions of Hudson Wade Fighting Heart and Wildcat Club Student-Athlete of the Year awards.
Four-year tennis player Nico Agritelley received the Hudson Wade Fighting Heart Award. He went 17-10 this spring with eight of those victories coming at the No. 2 position. He also was exceptional vs. the Southland Conference in posting a 4-1 record, beating individuals from Nicholls, New Orleans, Incarnate Word and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Agritelley has won 74 singles matches in his career, including a season-best 22 as a sophomore in 2015, and in his final match as a Wildcat he won The Ojai doubles championship with teammate Henry Adams, 4-6, 7-6, 13-11 over ACU's Josh and Jonathan Sheehy.
The Wildcat Club Student-Athlete of the Year award is presented to student-athletes who encompass ACU's mission for excellence in Christ through athletics, academics, service and faith. Men's basketball player Parker Wentz was the inaugural recipient of this award last spring, and this year it was given to both senior golfer and SAAC president Kyle Karnei and senior defender Kelsie Roberts.
A biochemistry major, Roberts has maintained a perfect grade-point average which has kept her name on the school's Dean's List and helped her earn the title of First Team Academic All-America.
In addition to numerous academic successes, Roberts still made time to serve her community. She has volunteered for such groups as Meals on Wheels, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, W-Club, and Disability Resources, Inc., where she worked with physically and mentally disabled adolescents and adults.
And on the pitch for the Wildcats this past season, Roberts left at the top of her game as she contributed a career season high nine points and anchored a defensive line for a Wildcat team that posted their best Southland Conference record of 8-2-1. She was voted First Team All-Southland Conference and Defender of the Year in addition to being tabbed Third Team All-Central Region.
Karnei has been one of the most visible and active Wildcats since his freshman year of 2013. And with each passing year, his pursuits to helping those less fortunate have been met with increasing amounts of success.
Karnei was elected ACU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee president as a sophomore, and some of his first endeavors included a Christmas time Teddys for Tots program – which benefited the children of Hendrick Children's Hospital and Abilene's Sam Thomas Elementary School – and a sock drive for Abilene's Love and Care Ministries.
But it wasn't until Karnei heard the story of a cancer-stricken 11-year-old named Hudson Wade, that the entire campus community became more aware about his passion to help and serve others. The McGregor, Texas, native got online, talked to newspapers and appeared on local TV to tell Hudson's story and within a couple months of the 2015 fall semester he helped launch the inaugural Hudson Wade 5K.
That first event generated approximately $5,200, which was distributed between the Hudson Wade Family Foundation and Cure Search. The second annual HW5K held this past November raised close to $6,000 for the Pray 4 Rex Foundation.
Academic awards tonight went to women's track and field, and women's cross country. Track and field received the Most Improved Team GPA honor, and cross country earned the prize for Highest Team GPA.
Women's basketball, meanwhile, received its second straight Community Service Award.
ACU's strength and conditioning coach Cameron Prater presented the inaugural Iron Cat awards, which go to student-athletes who best exemplify the tenants of accountability, work ethic, positive energy and constant improvement. The first winners of this award were sophomore tennis player Josh Sheehy and senior pole vaulter Kenzie Walker Mascorro.
Sheehy has played top-line singles the past two seasons for the Wildcats, and this spring he helped them win their first Southland Conference regular-season championship. Mascorro has won seven collegiate pole vault titles in her collegiate career, including at the 2016 Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Championship. Paul Goad Award Winners Presented to the top male and female athletes of the year at ACU 1978-79: Kelly Kent (football) and Kathy Moore (volleyball) 1979-80: Randall Moore (basketball) and Perri Lou Short (track and field) 1980-81: Kenny Davidson (football) and Bonnie Buchanan (basketball) 1981-82: Billy Olson (track and field) and Pennie Dacus (volleyball) 1982-83: Grant Feasel (football) and Laurie Taylor (track and field) 1983-84: Mark Wilson (football) and Judy Kniffen (tennis) 1984-85: James Wright (basketball) and Deonna Moore (basketball) 1985-86: Freddie Williams (track and field) and Claudia Schleyer (basketball) 1986-87: Eddie DeShong (football) and Yolanda Henry (track and field) 1987-88: Chris Goodspeed (golf) and Sylvia Dyer (track and field) 1988-89: Emmitt Davis (basketball) and Donna Sykes (tennis) 1989-90: Bill Clayton (football) and Suzanne Johnson (basketball) 1990-91: Wendell Edwards (track and field) and Michelle King (tennis) 1991-92: Hunter Cooley (basketball) and Michelle King (tennis) 1992-93: Joseph Tengelei (track and field) and Chelsa Lancaster (track and field) 1993-94: Brian Amos (track and field) and Chelsa Lancaster (track and field) 1994-95: Savieri Ngihdi (track and field) and Jennifer Clarkson (basketball) 1995-96: Victor Randolph (football) and Jennifer Clarkson (basketball) 1996-97: Glenn Griffin (track and field) and Delloreen Ennis (track and field) 1997-98: Musa Gwanzura (track and field) and Caroline Omamo (basketball) 1998-99: Jared Mosley (basketball) and Tracey Barnes (track and field) 1999-00: Nic Alexander (track and field) and Jackie Bucher (basketball) 2000-01: Alfred Rugema (cross country), Leah Ticer (tennis) 2001-02: Ryan Boozer (football), Melanie Carter (basketball) 2002-03: Alfred Rugema (cross country), Lacey Johnson (tennis) 2003-04: Bernard Manirakiza (track), Melanie Carter (basketball) 2004-05: Bernard Manirakiza (track), Katie Bryan (softball) 2005-06: Danieal Manning (football), Amanda Slate (volleyball) 2006-07: Nicodemus Naimadu (track), Angie Aguilar (track and field) 2007-08: Jerale Badon (football), Abbie Lowry (volleyball) 2008-09: Jordan Schmitt (baseball), Irene Squillaci (tennis) 2009-10: Aaron Oliver (baseball), Shawna Hines (volleyball) 2010-11: Alex Carpenter (golf), Andrea Carpenter (soccer) 2011-12: Nick Jones (track and field), Jennie Hutt (volleyball) 2012-13: Alex Carpenter (golf), Julia Mongin (tennis) 2013-14: John David Baker (football), Andrea Carpenter (soccer) and Micah Hermsdorf (tennis) 2014-15: Tyler Eager (baseball), Peyton Hedrick (softball) 2015-16: Jaylen Franklin (basketball), Alexandria Hackett (cross country / track and field) 2016-17: Sam Denmark (football), Suzzy Dimba (women's basketball) About Paul Goad
Paul Goad was a three-sport student-athlete at ACU in the mid-1950s. Goad lettered in football, baseball and track and field for the Wildcats after transferring to ACU after his freshman campaign at Vanderbilt. He won the Texas Conference title in the shot put in 1954, and he was a member of ACU's NAIA national championship track and field teams in 1954 and 1955.
Goad was ACU's leading rusher and scorer in 1954, and in 1955 he was third team all-America. He went on to play professionally for one season (1956) with the San Francisco 49ers after being selected by the team in the 25th round of the 1956 draft. Wildcat Club Student-Athlete of the Year Presented to student-athletes who encompass ACU's mission for excellence in Christ through athletics, academics, service and faith
2015-16: Parker Wentz (basketball)
2016-17: Kyle Karnei (golf), Kelsie Roberts (soccer) Horizon Award Presented to student-athletes whose single-season efforts result in noteworthy career achievements. 2007-08: Nicodemus Naimadu, Bernard Scott 2008-09: Bernard Scott, Billy Malone, Johnny Knox, Sam Collins, and Camille Vandendriessche 2010-11: Amos Sang, Nick Jones, Ramon Sparks, Desmond Jackson, and Edmond Gates 2011-12: None awarded 2012-13: Alex Carpenter, Mitchell Gale 2013-14: Andrea Carpenter 2014-15: None awarded 2015-16: None awarded 2016-17: Lizzy Dimba, Suzzy Dimba, Alexis Mason and Sydney Shelstead 2016-17 Fighting Heart Award winners (by team) Baseball: Dalon Farkas Football: Sam Denmark Golf: Brandon Stites Men's Basketball: Isaiah Tripp Men's Cross Country: John Baker Men's Tennis: Nico Agritelley* Men's Track and Field: Rosen Daniel Soccer: Leslie Snider Softball: Casey-May Huff Women's Cross Country: Gabby Thompson Women's Basketball: Breanna Wright Women's Tennis: Lucile Pothier Women's Track and Field: Natalie Jackson Volleyball: Jacey Smith
*Hudson Wade Fighting Heart Award 2016-17 Sports Medicine Awards Comeback Athlete of the Year: Lizzy Dimba, women's basketball Student Athletic Trainer of the Year: Jayna Hanson
2016-17 Academic Awards Chi Alpha Sigma Members Given to student-athletes who maintain a 3.4 cumulative grade-point average
Henry Adams
Megan Baer
John Baker
Brianna Barnhill
Peyton Bucklew
Ryan Cleary
Sam Denmark Lizzy Dimba Suzzy Dimba
Paul Michael Domanski
Emily Duke
Chloe Fifer
Brad Gleason
Corinne Grandcolas
Peyton Hedrick
Hunter Holman
Clarke Hudgins
Lincoln Jones
Chantal Kinsey
Zachary Kornely
McKenzie Mascorro
Holly Neese
Danielle Otto
Taylor Posey
Kai Schmidt
Ryan Simmons
Brandon Stites
Braxton Wilks
Most Improved Team GPA: Women's Track & Field Highest Team GPA: Women's Cross Country Community Service Award: Women's Basketball
