By Ohio Valley Conference with contributions from TTU Sports Information
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – The Ohio Valley Conference selected six individuals to receive its prestigious Scholar-Athlete Award for 2016-17. The award is the highest individual honor that can be earned by OVC student-athletes, and is given annually to three men and three women student-athletes for their accomplishments in both the classroom and athletic arena, and because of their leadership qualities.
Tennessee Tech tennis' Alberto Esteban and soccer's Abi Gearing each captured the illustrious honor Thursday, becoming just the sixth duo in program history to accomplish the feat and the first since Beth Boden and Thomas Nelson were each named OVC Scholar-Athletes in 2007-08.
The six winners were selected from a group of 17 finalists by a vote of OVC Faculty Athletics Representatives. Honorees must have performed athletically with distinction, earned at least a 3.25 grade point average and conducted themselves in a manner which has brought credit to the student-athlete, his or her institution, intercollegiate athletics and the OVC. The award is based on academic and athletic criteria/accomplishments achieved during the 2015-16 school year.
Alberto Esteban – Esteban has been a key contributor (primarily playing No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles) for the Tennessee Tech men's tennis team that has won back-to-back OVC regular season championships (2015 and 2016) in addition to winning the 2016 OVC Tournament Championship. He was named a first-team All-OVC selection as a freshman (2014) and junior (2016) while being recognized as a second-team pick as a sophomore in 2015. In the classroom, he has compiled a 3.83 grade point average in mechanical engineering with a minor in mathematics. Esteban has been named to the Dean's List in each of his six previous semesters in college and has been a two-time President's Award honoree. He has also been named an OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll three times and earned the ITA Scholar-Athlete Award in 2016. He is a member of the Pi Tau Sigma mechanical engineering honor society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). As part of his Dynamics of Machinery class he was tasked to create a project to help children with some type of disability. Esteban's project provided aid to an 8-year old child who was neither able to speak or move a majority of his body; his group created an app that emitted words and was controlled by an external joystick. In his native Spain, he helped create an event called "Tenis para Todos (tennis for everyone)" that invited children and teenagers with limited economic resources to receive free racquets and lessons from instructors.
Abi Gearing – Gearing is a captain and midfielder for the Tennessee Tech women's soccer team. As a junior in 2015 she was the team's leading scorer (including netting three game-winning goals) in helping the Golden Eagles to a 6-3-1 Conference record. She logged 1,909 minutes played, the sixth-highest single-season total in program history. Following the year, she was named a first-team All-OVC selection, the first TTU player to earn that honor since 2009. In the classroom, she has a 3.97 grade point average in special education. Gearing is a member of the Tennessee Tech Honors Program and has earned Dean's List recognition every semester of her collegiate career. Gearing has also been named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll and twice earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor. She is active in the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) including being the head of the community service committee each of the past two years, which included helping coordinate TTU's Hoops For Heroes initiative. Gearing also serves as the President of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) organization. In the community, she has volunteered with the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission, a local food pantry and also at local elementary schools. In the summer of 2015 she went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
Esteban and Gearing became the 30th and 31st Golden Eagles to earn the award, second only to Murray State's 38 honorees. Esteban also became the first male Golden Eagle to earn the honor since Dennis Ogbe in 2013-14 while Gearing became Tech's first female recipient since Kellie Cook in 2012-13.
The other four 2016-17 Ohio Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete winners are: Ben Fisher of Eastern Kentucky (baseball), Riley McInerney of Eastern Illinois (cross country and track & field), Kylee Smith of Belmont (basketball) and Jessica Twaddle of Murray State (softball).
Ben Fisher – Fisher is a three-year starter at first base for the Eastern Kentucky baseball team and was named a Freshman All-American in 2014 by the NCBWA after hitting .286 with 59 hits, eight home runs and 36 RBI as a freshman. A season ago he hit .288 with 64 hits, 36 runs scored and 33 RBI. In his three seasons, he has played in 158 games, starting 157 of them, and compiled a .284 career batting average. In the classroom, Fisher has compiled a 4.0 grade point average as a biology major. He has been named to the EKU Dean's List and President's List every semester of his college career in addition to earning three OVC Academic Medal of Honor awards and being named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll three times. He was also inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma national student-athlete honor society. Fisher serves as the President of EKU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and is active with Campus Outreach, a Christian ministry on campus. He is also involved in numerous volunteer activities including reading to students at local elementary schools and helping feed less-fortunate people on Christmas Day for each of the past six years.
Riley McInerney – McInerney is the top runner on the Eastern Illinois cross country team where he was voted a captain for the third consecutive year in 2016, a first in program history. He was a first-team All-OVC selection in cross country as a junior after finishing fourth at the OVC Championship. For the track and field program he has earned All-OVC distinction in the steeplechase (2015 and 2016), Distance Medley Relay (2015 and 2016) and 1500 meters (2015) in addition to being the mile champion at the OVC Indoor Championship in each 2015 and 2016. In the classroom, he has compiled a 3.73 grade point average in kinesiology and sports studies (teacher education). McInerney has been a three-time selection to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll, a multiple time Dean's List choice and a USTFCCCA All-Academic selection in each cross country and track and field. On campus, he has been an Office of Admissions Student Ambassador, a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Kylee Smith – On the court Smith played a key role in helping the Belmont women's basketball team compile a 24-9 overall and 13-3 Conference mark on its way to winning the OVC Tournament Championship a year ago. She averaged a team-high 13.8 points/game to go along with 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists/game in earning both first-team All-OVC and OVC All-Newcomer honors after transferring from Vanderbilt (and redshirting during the 2014-15 season). In the classroom, she has a 3.90 grade point average in business administration and was part of a Belmont team that compiled the sixth-highest cumulative GPA nationally and earned a spot on the WBCA Top 25 Team Honor List for the second-consecutive season. She has been named to the Dean's List every semester in college and earned two OVC Academic Medal of Honor awards as well as having been selected to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll twice. Smith is a member of the Alpha Chi Honor Society and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In the community, she is active with the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation (which benefits pediatric cancer patients), the Ronald McDonald House and has volunteered as numerous elementary schools. She also went with the women's basketball team on a mission trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August 2015.
Jessica Twaddle – Entering her final season with the Murray State softball team, Twaddle has been a three-year starter for the Racers including being named 2015 OVC Player of the Year after batting .426 with 45 runs, 16 doubles, eight home runs and 54 RBI. A season ago she led the team in seven offensive categories including RBI (28), slugging (.516) and on-base percentage (.413) while finishing with a .335 batting average. She has twice been named All-OVC and was an OVC All-Newcomer pick as a freshman. In the classroom, she has a 3.96 grade point average in economics and was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2015. Twaddle has also been a multiple time selection to the Murray State Dean's List as well as the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll in addition to earning the OVC Academic Medal of Honor. She has also been honored as a NFCA All-American Scholar-Athlete twice and is a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon International Honor Society. She has volunteered with Best Buddies, Project Linus and the Adopt a Family programs in addition to taking an outreach mission trip to Khon Kaen, Thailand in 2015.
Other nominees for the Scholar-Athlete Award were: Evan Bradds of Belmont (basketball), Sarah Candeloro of UT Martin (tennis), Trevor Ezell of Southeast Missouri (baseball), Mia Frogner of SIUE (tennis), Amber Hughes of Tennessee State (track and field), Kelly Iden of Eastern Illinois (tennis), Anna Magnusson of Morehead State (golf), Justine Panchuk of Jacksonville State (soccer), Megan Parks of Southeast Missouri (cross country and track & field), Zach Shipley of Murray State (football), Austin Swafford of UT Martin (golf).
Photos by Tony Marable
