Golden Bruisers Awards Show Celebrates Another Year of the Bear
8/16/2021 9:15:00 AM | General, "B" Association
By Jerry HillBaylor Bear Insider
Celebrating one, if not the best year in school history, Baylor Athletics recognized its two national champions as Teams of the Year and honored an amazing group of student-athletes for their achievements on and off the field at Sunday's Golden Bruiser Awards Show at the Ferrell Center.
Emceed by "Voice of the Bears" John Morris, the fourth annual awards honored the department's best and brightest in a format patterned after other shows like the Oscars, Emmys and ESPYs.
In a year that saw Baylor win two national championships and six Big 12 titles and claim a total of 36 All-America honors in 11 sports, men's basketball and acrobatics & tumbling took home the coveted Golden Bruisers as the Teams of the Year.
Ranked No. 2 almost the whole season, Scott Drew's Baylor men had a historic 28-2 season that included winning the first conference championship in 71 years. A dominant NCAA Tournament run was capped by an 86-70 win over top-ranked and previously unbeaten Gonzaga, which also earned the Bears the Golden Bruiser for Team Performance of the Year.
Jared Butler, named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, added a Golden Bruiser as the Male Student-Athlete of the Year. Graduating in three years with a BBA in management, Butler became the first student-athlete in the Big 12's 25-year history to win Athlete of the Year, Sportsperson of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Drafted in the second round with the 40th pick overall, Butler officially signed with the Utah Jazz on Thursday. As a junior, he averaged 16.7 points, 4.8 assists and a league-leading 2.0 steals per game while shooting 41.6 percent from 3-point range.
Avenging a rare loss to Oregon, coach Felecia Mulkey led the A&T team to a win over the Ducks in the NCATA semifinals and then knocked off top-seeded Azusa Pacific to win its sixth-consecutive national championship.
After a COVID-shortened 2020 season, Mulkey said "the sigh of relief to get to this point was unbelievable."
"I know it is on these guys. I know it has been on our coaching staff, just to get here and be at the championship, get to have a season," she said. "There were so many times we thought we wouldn't be able to compete at all."
On top of the two team national champions, track & field's national championship trio of Aaliyah Miller, Ackera Nugent and KC Lightfoot also took home Golden Bruiser awards.
A four-time All-American, Miller was named the Female Student-Athlete of the Year after a phenomenal season highlighted by winning the NCAA Indoor 800-meter title with a school- and meet-record time of 2:00.69. She also swept the Big 12 indoor and outdoor championships in the 800 meters and ran on the indoor 4x400 relay that captured another title.
"In a championship race, nobody's really focused on the time, you just want to go for the win," Miller said. "But, once I took it out so fast, I was like, 'Well, we're going to see where this takes me.' Two-flat is insane. I'm just extremely humbled, grateful, thankful that we got this far."
At the same NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., Nugent won the 60-meter hurdles with an U20 world-record time of 7.92 seconds. Named the Rookie of the Year, along with baseball's Jared McKenzie, Nugent also picked up Big 12 Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Freshman of the Year honors.
Topping a list of finalists that included men's basketball's Davion Mitchell versus Houston in the national semifinals and equestrian's Savannah Hemby's winning ride to upset top-ranked Auburn, Lightfoot won the Golden Bruiser for Play of the Year.
Giving Baylor three individual champions at an NCAA meet for the first time in program history, Lightfoot stayed alive by clearing the 5.80-meter bar (19-0 ¼) on his final attempt and went on to win his first NCAA title with a vault of 19-5 ½ that broke the meet and facility records.
Fifth-year senior golfer Colin Kober was the night's only double winner, being named both the Academic Champion and Scholar-Athlete of the Year. With a cumulative 4.0 GPA, he earned his undergrad degree in accounting and master in taxation and was twice named the NCAA Elite 90 Award winner as the player with the highest GPA at the NCAA Championship.
A setter on the volleyball team, Callie Williams was named the Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Now working on an MBA, she has been named to the Academic All-Big 12 first team, Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll and SEC Academic Honor Roll and also serves as community engagement chair for SAAC.
Williams was also part of the Comeback of the Year, registering 17 assists and four digs in a 3-2 win over Pepperdine in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Rallying from a 2-1 set deficit, the Bears won a thrilling fourth set, 27-25, and carried over that momentum in taking the decisive fifth set, 15-10.
"I felt like we were on life support there a little bit," said coach Ryan McGuyre, whose team advanced to the region semifinals for just the third time in program history. "We've learned from other teams in our program, champions don't die easy."
Tying men's basketball for the most Golden Bruisers with three, the soccer team was named the Academic Team Champion of the Year, Kayley Ables the Female Academic Champion and Marissa Gray won the Missions Award for making an impact on a trip to Guatemala.
Ables graduated with a bachelor's degree in supply chain management with a cumulative 4.0 GPA and is now working on an MBA. As a team, soccer had an overall GPA of 3.71, with 48% of the players recording a personal best.
Other team awards went to men's tennis as the Male Academic Team Champion of the Year and women's golf and equestrian as Community Champions. Women's golf had 100% participation and averaged nine hours of community service per team member, while equestrian served a combined total of 288 hours.
The John Westbrook Award for Courage and Perseverance went to DiDi Richards with women's basketball and football's Terrel Bernard. Richards recovered from a terrifying, career-threatening injury on Oct. 24 and returned 38 days later for a victory over South Florida, going on to play a crucial role in the Lady Bears' run to a sweep of the Big 12 titles and a trip to the Elite Eight.
Bernard continued to play in a 38-31 road loss at #17 Iowa State after suffering a torn and dislocated shoulder. Now working on a master's degree in sport management, Bernard had offseason shoulder surgery and is back as the leader of a talented and experienced Baylor defense.
Softball's Lou Gilbert, a second-team All-Big 12 pick who brings energy to the field every day, won the Spark Award over Bernard and volleyball's Marieke van der Mark. Kicker Jay Sedwick off the football team earned the Acts 20:24 Award for "the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace," while cheerleader Riley Godwin was named the Outstanding Spirit Squad Member.
Thursday, July 23
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