Throughout the year certain athletic teams have had their moments in the sun. This past Monday at the 71st annual athletic awards ceremony, every team at DU was recognized for its accomplishments during the year.
DU is home to 17 intercollegiate sports programs and each honored its most valuable athletes for the 2005-2006 year. Also recognized were the scholar-athletes of the year.
The special awards were Male Athlete of the Year, which went to Matt Carle; Female Athlete of the Year, Kristie Leggio; Comeback Player of the Year, Venice Adams; Strength and Conditioning Award, Terrence Gordon and Amanda Millard; Walter Byers Award, Brian Flaherty; Pioneer Sportsman, Aaron Feight; and Pioneer Sportswomen, Jessica Lopez.
Carle, the DU Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, spent three years at DU polishing off his college hockey career and winning the Hobey Baker Award this year. Carle also helped DU win its back to back national championships his freshman and sophomore years.
Carle was not only the first player from DU to be awarded the Hobey Award; he also became the first player ever to be named WCHA Player of the Year and WCHA Defensive Player in the same season. Carle left DU as a junior in March when he signed with the San Jose Sharks.
Master of Ceremonies Peter Mannino said of Carle, “He’s the best college athlete in the nation. You couldn’t ask for a better player to be your captain.”
Kristie Leggio, DU Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, is finishing up her junior year at DU playing lacrosse. She was also awarded the 2006 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Year and was named MPSF Player of the Week three times during the season. She also helped lead the Pioneers to there first MPSF regular season title leading the team in points, goals, and assists.
Freshman diver Aaron Feight and freshman gymnast Jessica Lopez were both awarded outstanding first-year athletes. Feight was named Sun Belt Conference Male Diver of the Year and also took home the conference titles for the 1 meter and 3 meter boards. He was also the first diver from DU to qualify for the NCAA zone meet where he finished just out of contention to go to the NCAA championships.
Lopez also had an incredible year winning nine event titles and recording a team season high event score with a 9.95 on the uneven bars.
The award ceremony was meant to honor DU’s athletes and to recognize those individuals who performed particularly well.
“You bring everybody together as a group, we are Denver Athletics, that’s it,” Mannino said. He added, “We are here to commend each team for how well they did, because in the end we are a group that excelled, not just the lacrosse team or another individual team.” Mannino pointed out that “because each little thing that we achieved as a team was really the whole group’s achievement, and that’s really what the awards was, to get everybody together and show these special people or teams how well they did this year.”
The evening ended with the singing of DUs fight song by all of the athletes and coaches as one group.
