All-Time Golden Wings Award Winners
By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Tech Athletics continued its recognition of the best and brightest of its more than 300 student-athletes by releasing six more winners of its 2021 Golden Wings Awards.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the Performance of the Year Award winner was women's basketball's Jordan Brock and her showing in the team's comeback victory at UT Martin. Five more Golden Eagle Award winners were released as well, spanning five spring sports programs including men's golf, baseball, women's golf, softball and tennis.
Brock turned in one of her best performances in the purple and gold in helping the Golden Eagles to an epic comeback win at UT Martin. Trailing by 12 points with just over nine minutes remaining, the senior guard completely took over, dropping 17 points in the fourth quarter alone while sinking 5-of-8 tries from 3-point range.
She scored 32 points in the contest – one shy of tying her career-best of 33 – while tying her career-high in 3-pointers made with eight. The victory snapped the Skyhawks' 10-game winning streak and also ended UT Martin's 19-game OVC home winning streak – started after Tech's last victory at the Elam Center two years ago.
An honor created by members of the Tennessee Tech Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), a Golden Eagle Award is presented to each of Tech's 13 teams (indoor and outdoor track & field are combined), as well as the Golden Eagle cheer and dance teams. The teams each vote to select one member of the roster whom they would hold up with pride to represent the team, who is always positive and giving 110 percent, supporting their teammates, win or lose, and serving as the "heart" of the team, no matter whether they were a star or a seldom-used backup.
Following the inaugural show in 2016, Tech's SAAC voted to include both the Golden Eagle cheer and dance teams into the Golden Eagle Awards as a way to honor the two squads that support Tech Athletics year-round. One winner is selected by the members of each team, adding up to a total of 15 winners each year.
Redshirt senior Arianna Clemmer was selected as the women's golf team's Golden Eagle Award winner for the first time in her career. The Milan, Tenn. native represented one of two Golden Eagles to play all 17 rounds on the year, averaging a 79.94 stroke average in six events.
Selected by the Tennessee Tech baseball team as its Golden Eagle Award recipient was senior Cody Littlejohn. The outfielder claimed All-OVC First Team honors while batting .324 with 40 runs, 55 hits, 37 RBI, 14 home runs and a .635 slugging percentage.
For the third straight year and third time in her career, senior Sydney Love-Baker was picked as the softball team's Golden Eagle Award winner. The Washington, D.C. native ranked second on the Tech squad with a .286 average while scoring 20 runs on 40 hits with four home runs and 19 RBI.
A native of Lebanon, Tenn., freshman Mark McDearman was the Golden Eagle Award selection by the men's golf team. The rookie collected spots on the All-OVC Team and OVC All-Newcomer Team while posting a team-best 72.42 scoring average in 12 rounds and four events.
The Golden Eagle Award winner for the tennis team was freshman Jun Sasagawa. The Cremorne, Australia native provided strong leadership while finishing 3-1 in singles play during the season. He also tallied an 8-5 doubles record during the season.
All-Time Golden Eagle Award Winners
The Golden Wings Awards, which enters its sixth year, is an end-of-the-year award ceremony for the Tennessee Tech University student-athletes to honor and celebrate their academic and athletic accomplishments over the past complete seasons. With the cancellation of last year's spring seasons due to COVID-19, this year's awards time frame became simpler than in year's past when multiple years were used to allow for a more complete and fair field of choices. This year, all awards were selected from the accomplishments from the 2020-21 athletic year.
Previously, baseball, softball, outdoor track & field, men's golf, women's golf and tennis nominees were selected from their prior year of competition to allow a more complete campaign from which to gather nominees. The annual awards show was officially cancelled for a second year due to complications with scheduling and COVID-19 protocols. Like the 2020 awards, the choice was made to still honor the student-athletes for their accomplishments from one of the most unique athletic years in history.
Prior to the first Golden Wings Awards show, Tennessee Tech Athletics annually presented four awards to deserving student-athletes, including Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year, Man of the Year and Woman of the Year. The first honor established, for the 1990-91 academic year, was the Woman of the Year Award, coinciding with the first NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Two years later, in 1992-93, Tech established its Man of the Year Award. Both the Male Athlete of the Year and Female Athlete of the Year honors were added for the 1993-94 academic year. The four honors were officially adopted into the Golden Wings Awards, including criteria, for the 2016-17 academic year.
