On April 27, 2020 the Indiana State Sycamores hosted The Samy's -- our annual end-of-the-year banquet and awards show and celebrated the accomplishments of our student-athletes and coaches. This year, The Samy's was held virtually on the evening on April 27, 2020 and streamed live via our social media channels. The complete show is available above this story.
The nominees were announced each day over from April 10 through April 24 on social media. Each announcement had a video and a recap of each nominee's accomplishments. You can find a chart of all that content below. A complete recap of the award winners is below.
Our student-athletes are the backbone of our athletics department -- thank you for tuning in all month and celebrating along with us!
Nominees were announced each day at Noon on
Twitter.com/IndStAthletics. Here is the complete schedule (and links to more information):
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TERRE HAUTE, Ind.  – The Indiana State University Department of Athletics held The Samy's – its annual end of the year banquet – virtually on Monday, April 27 via a live stream on the program's social media channels as well as GoSycamores.com.
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Throughout the month of April, the Sycamores have announced nominees for many different categories over social media. The Sycamores also took that time to highlight each nominee's accomplishments via Adobe Spark to honor the student-athletes – many of whom saw their playing seasons cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The #Samys2020 honored student-athletes who competed during the spring and fall of 2019 as well as the winter of 2020.
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Here is a complete list of award winners:
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Male Individual Performance of the Year:
Chris Ayers, who led the Sycamores to the MVC Tournament Championship in Baseball. The other nominees included
Tyreke Key Leading To A Road Win At Missouri State; Dom Daffney's historic football game in a win at Missouri State and
JaVaughn Moore's performance at the 2020 MVC Indoor Championship.
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Female Individual Performance of the Year: Erin Reece, who finished as the NCAA Runner-Up At The NCAA Championships in 2019. The other nominees were
Thilda Staubo who was named the MVC Women's Golfer of the Year,
Leslie Sims who set the Sycamore softball stolen base record and Melania Tedrow who recorded 44 digs in a volleyball win against Evansville.
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Comeback Player of the Year:
JaVaughn Moore, who overcame an injury to be named the MVC Indoor Track Athlete of the Year. Also nominated were football's
Inoke Moala, Basketball's
Christian Williams, Volleyball's
Jade York and Baseball's
Tyler Ward.
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Team Performance of the Year: Sycamore Baseball sweeps nationally-ranked Dallas Baptist to win the MVC Tournament Championship. Other nominees were: Sycamore Basketball's dominating home win over Loyola Chicago; Volleyball's win over Missouri State – its first win over the Bears since 1994 and Women's Basketball win over Northern Iowa.
Male Newcomer of the Year:
Collin Liberatore of the Sycamore Baseball team. Other nominee's included football's Dom Daffney and Basketball's
Jake LaRavia.
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Female Newcomer Of The Year: Cece Wahlberg who was named to the MVC All-Freshman Team as well as a MVC Second Team selection in women's soccer. Other nominees included
Kaimi Matsumoto, volleyball's
Chloe Mason and Women's Basketball Jam'yra McChristine.
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The Bound & Determined Award went to Sycamore Basketball who finished third in the MVC while defeating every league team at least once after being picked to finish sixth in the preseason. Also nominated were the Women's Cross Country Team who finished third in the MVC as well as the Women's Golf team who was fourth at the MVC Championship.
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The Team of the Year was Sycamore Baseball. ISU qualified for the NCAA Tournament regional at Vanderbilt where they picked up two wins after winning four games in two day's time to win the MVC Tournament Championship. The other nominees included Sycamore Basketball and the Women's Swimming & Diving Team.
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The Coach of the Year was Sycamore Baseball's
Mitch Hannahs. Hannahs led ISU to the MVC Tournament title in 2019 and advanced to the NCAA Regional Championship game against top-ranked Vanderbilt. Other nominees were
Greg Lansing of Sycamore Basketball and
Josh Christensen who leads the Sycamore Women's Swimming and Diving program.
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The John McNichols Award (top male athlete of the year) went to Sycamore Baseball's
Clay Dungan. Other nominees included the 2019 winner
Jonas Griffith of Sycamore Football as well as basketball's
Tyreke Key and Track and Field's
JaVaughn Moore.
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The John McNichols Award for top female athlete of the year went to Track and Field's Erin Reece following her NCAA runner-up finish at the outdoor championship. Other nominees included
Thilda Staubo's senior year for Sycamore Golf and
Leslie Sims' season with Sycamore softball.
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The President's Cup which is awarded to the team with the highest cumulative grade point average went to Sycamore Swimming & Diving.
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A new award this year is the Olson-Hill/Sapp Award named in honor of Christi Olson-Hill who competed for the Sycamore Women's Track and Field Team as well as Chris Sapp who was a standout for the Sycamore Football program. This award is given to a junior or senior who embodies the spirit of the Sycamores. The nominees were selected by the Student Athlete Advisory Council and the winner was chosen by Athletics Administration. This year the award is given to
Jordan Denton of Sycamore Women's Soccer. Others nominated for this award were
Inoke Moala of Sycamore Football, Baseball's
Max Wright, Men's Cross Country's Cale Killian, Cheer's Mallory Cooper, Sparkettes' Kressa Sweeney, Women's Cross Country's
Claire Collins, Volleyball's
Jade York; Women's Basketball's Jam'yra McChristine, Swimming & Diving's
Kerry Tepe, Women's Golf's
Sierra Hargens and Softball's
Della Gher.
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The Sycamore Cup goes to the program who dedicates itself to community service. This year's winner is the the Sycamore Spirit Squad comprised of the cheer team and sparkettes.
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The True To Blue Award goes to a non-athlete or coach who is extremely devoted to the Sycamore Athletics program. This year's winner is David Patterson of the Terre Haute Convention and Visitor's Bureau. Patterson is instrumental in hosting championship at ISU and helping to coordinate hotel space for participating teams. He has helped host ever NCAA Division I Championship in Cross Country at ISU as well as numerous MVC Baseball and Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
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The Gillum Award is given annual to a graduating student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average. This year's winner of the Gillum Award is
Colleen Madden of the Sycamore Women's Track and Field program.
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The final two awards given during The Samy's Awards was the Presidential Scholar Athletes of the Year. These awards went to Women's Track and Field and Cross Country's
Alli Workman as well as Baseball's
Max Wright. The other nominees included:
Kaitlyn Davis of Women's Track and Field; Swimming's
Kendall Hansen; Women's Golf
Sierra Hargens; Cross Country's
Noah Hufnagel; Men's Basketball's
Jake LaRavia; Football's
Zach Larkin; Softball's
Becky Malchow; Women's Soccer's
Jensen Margheim; Track's
Nick Schultz; Women's Basketball's Hattie Westerfield and Volleyball's
Jade York.
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