By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information Coordinator
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – When the awards selection committee tried to make a decision between tennis' Eduardo Mena and baseball's Kevin Strohschein, it wasn't easy to make a decision.
After all, both student-athletes had put together one of the most dominant seasons in recent years – Mena ran the table in Ohio Valley Conference play, while Strohschein took home a lot of hardware with his accolades.
The solution? Give it to them both.
This marks the fourth time that the Tennessee Tech Male Athlete of the Year Award has been split, following suit between 2005 (Willie Jenkins and Frank Omiyale), 2010 (A.J. Kirby-Jones and Chad Oberacker) and 2014 (Daniel Miles and Brandon Thomasson).
Mena is the third tennis student-athlete to win the award, following Syrym Abduhkalikov (2013) and Alex Arovin (2015).
"I'm so excited to win this award," Mena said. "All the nominees are amazing athletes and getting the award makes me proud of my work during the year."
Strohschein is the seventh baseball student-athlete to be recognized, joining Mark Maberry (1997), Casey Benjamin (2003), Kirby-Jones (2009, 2010), Oberacker (2010), Miles (2014) and Thomasson (2014).
Strohschein is also the first freshman to win the award.
"Most of the credit goes to my coaches and my teammates," Strohschein said.
The duo beat out impressive competition from Tra'Darius Goff (football), Maleek Hall (football), Ryan Martin (basketball), Brock McCoin (football), Guillermo Nocolas (tennis), Ethan Roberts (baseball), Torrance Rowe (basketball) and Mitch Thomas (golf).
Mena's season was just incredible, setting the school record with 33 wins this year, including a 20-1 dual record in the spring – the only loss coming to Romain Bogaerts from Wake Forest, a nationally ranked foe at that.
Mena also did what many would have thought unimaginable. Facing the country's top player in Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard in the opening round of the NCAA Championship, Mena captured the first set 7-6 (7-5), then took a 3-2 lead in the second set before the match was called.
"Since the moment I knew we were going to the NCAAs, all my teammates knew who I wanted to play against," Mena said. "I wanted to play against the number 1 in the nation because I trusted in myself, and I knew that I could at least compete against the best, so I was so motivated to play that match. And when the moment arrived I was just so ready to play that I just played my best and I actually competed better than I ever did.
"When I saw I could win the number one in the nation but I finally didn't because the team had lost, I felt disappointed in one way, but also I just felt so proud of myself because I made enough noise and showed everybody that thought I couldn't play that level that I actually can compete against the top guys. I also have to thank most of my teammates and my coach because they trusted me and I could feel that support from them the days before the match."
But that wasn't all he did. Mena helped lead Tech its fourth OVC regular-season championship in five seasons as he put together an impressive 9-0 singles record as he became the Golden Eagles' No. 1 over Arovin, last year's Male Athlete of the Year.
"It was the main goal for the team and of course our coach," Mena said. "We could feel the excitement in the championship from all the guys in the team. Even Coach Doyle — even though he would always say he always thought we were going to win — was feeling nervous when we were down, but again, the whole team worked so hard to get the game. It felt amazing, even more after the effort we had made that day in the championship."
During the course of the season, Mena earned two OVC Male Athlete of the Week honors and was a competitor in the USTA/ITA Regional Championship match last October.
Mena, a sophomore, has a great opportunity to build on his efforts.
"My goal for this year is to improve," Mena said. "I have big tournaments to play this fall where the top players in the nation are going to be and I just want to compete against them and try to improve my game as much as I can. And,of course, my goals as a team are to win the conference and the tournament again and get to make some noise against the big schools as we did last spring."
For Strohschein, it is perhaps the most impressive debut for any freshman in either Tennessee Tech or Ohio Valley Conference baseball history as the rookie hauled in more accolades than many see in their entire career.
But after seeing the numbers, it's hard not to see why — the McDonough, Ga., native set Tech freshman records in hits, doubles, home runs, runs batted in, runs scored and total bases.
He hit 15 home runs, drove in 73 runs and had 90 hits — the latter two standing as the third-best tallies in school history. He struck for 21 doubles and compiled a .393 batting average and a .707 slugging percentage, just short of Jim Whaley's freshman mark of .516 batting and .730 slugging in 1963.
Strohschein led the Golden Eagles in nine offensive categories.
"It definitely surprised me a bit," Strohschein said. "I knew I could do it, but I didn't know if I could do it this early or even get the chance to do this that early. I didn't even know whether I was going to be starting until opening day. But after that, I just wanted to help the team get some wins and hold my own out there."
Among his honor, the freshman was named to the Perfect Game/Rawlings Freshman All-America first team, Perfect Game/Rawlings All-America Honorable Mention, Baseball America Freshman All-America first team, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Freshman All-America first team, a co-recipient of the Louisville Slugger National Freshman Player of the Year with Clemson's Seth Beer, and was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America team and Louisville Slugger All-America third team.
Before that, Strohschein was the first freshman in OVC history to be named the league's Player of the Year, as well as winning the conference's Rookie of the Year award and was on both the All-OVC first team and all-freshman team.
"That, honestly, has been a shock to me," Strohschein said. "I didn't expect any of that. I was just trying to earn a starting job, so it was very much a surprise to me too."
Strohschein could have as many as three more seasons remaining with the Golden Eagles, and he has no hopes of slowing down any time soon.
"I hope to help us win a couple of OVC championships," he said.
Photos by Tony Marable
