Photo by: CUBuffs.com
20th Annual CUSPY's Presented Virtually
May 27, 2020 | General
CU's Athletic Best Honored In On-line Ceremony Wednesday
BOULDER — Several major awards were presented online Wednesday as the University of Colorado honored its best in athletics in a virtual ceremony of the 20th annual CU Sports Performers of the Year (CUSPY) Awards.
Usually over 300 student-athletes, coaches, staff and C-Club board members attend the annual year-end banquet, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, it could not be business as usual. Thus the idea to present the awards online in a "Virtual CUSPY's" was born, organized by CU's Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) along with BuffVision to honor athletic accomplishments for the 2019-20 athletic year.
A replay of the virtual CUSPY festivities are available to view at https://www.facebook.com/coloradoathletics and on https://www.youtube.com/buffstv.
The Male and Female Athlete of the Year honors were both shared in the same year for just the third time since their inception back in 1984-85.
Seniors Taylor Kornieck (soccer) and Mikaela Tommy (alpine skiing) were selected as co-recipients of the Female Athlete of the Year honor.
Kornieck started all 82 games in her career and became the first player in CU history to surpass 100 career points. She wrapped up her Colorado career as the team's all-time leader in points (102) and tied the school record for career assists with 24. Last fall, she earned her second consecutive All-American honor (third team), totaling career-highs in points (30) and goals (12). She ranked seventh in the NCAA with 5.0 shots per game and was tied for the nation's lead with a perfect 4-for-4 showing in penalty kicks. Kornieck helped the Buffs back to the NCAA Tournament, her third trip in four years, with four game-winning goals and five multi-point matches. She concluded the season with 1.36 points per game, ranking fourth in CU history.
Tommy finished 10 races with nine podium appearances and five wins, all in the giant slalom. Her five GS wins were the most for a season and career in CU women's alpine history. She was named the National Skier of the Year by the Ski Coaches Association, the MVP and Skier of the Year by the RMISA and first-team All-RMISA. She also won eight runs (each alpine race consists of two runs), matching the CU record of Lucie Zikova and became the second skier in CU history behind Zikova to win multiple runs in both disciplines in the same season.
Dani Jones (indoor track), was the other finalist; her senior year competition was cut short, as she only raced in a handful of school events, with her eligibility complete in cross country, the indoor NCAA's along with the entire outdoor season cancelled.
The Male Athlete of the Year honor was shared between Joe Klecker (cross country) and McKinley Wright IV (basketball).
Klecker became CU's first Pac-12 Men's Cross Country Champion as he led the Buffs to their seventh Pac-12 team title. His second place finish at NCAA's was the best CU finish on the men's side since Dathan Ritzenhein won in 2003. The Buffs finished third as a team, just one point behind Northern Arizona. He earned a pair of indoor All-America honors in the 3,000 and 5,000-meter runs (awarded for qualifying since there was no actual NCAA meet, but he likely would have been a top finisher). He broke the state of Colorado soil mile record (4:01.00) at the CU invitational and recorded the second-fastest 3k time by at Buff at the prestigious Millrose Games before breaking his own school record in the 5,000 at the Husky Classic.
Wright was named first team All-Pac-12 for the second straight season and was named to the league's All-Defensive team, and was also selected to the NABC and USBWA All-District teams. Wright led the Buffaloes with 14.4 points and 5.0 assists per game, and was second on the team in steals (36), blocked shots (11) and free throws made (95) along with being third in rebounding (5.7 per game) and 3-point field goals made (39). He led the Pac-12 in assists during conference games (5.7 per), and had six double-doubles, the most by any Pac-12 point guard.
The other finalists were Nate Landman (football) and Daniel O'Loughlin (golf).
Jones was the unanimous selection for the Female Career Athletic Achievement Award. Her school record-tying four NCAA individual titles topped her many accomplishments, which also included being selected three times as CU's Female Athlete of the Year. Still, the first to be recognized four different times, her other honors included the 2017 and 2018 Pac-12 Cross Country Athlete of the Year, USTFCCCA Athlete of the Year for cross country (2018) and indoor track (2020) and the 2018-19 Honda Sports Award winner for cross country.
Jones did have some solid competition for the honor, as she topped a talented pool that produced four other finalists, Kornieck, Tommy, Kirsty Hodgkins (golf) and Julia Lisella (lacrosse). Hodgkins and Lisella have both since decided to take advantage of the NCAA ruling for spring sport athletes to gain an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic and will return this fall.
Klecker and Steven Montez (football) shared the Male Career Athletic Achievement Award. Klecker is a three-time All-American in cross country, which includes a second-place finish at the 2019 NCAA championship. He won the 2019 Pac-12 individual title and helped CU bring the team title back to Boulder for the seventh time in nine seasons after a two-year hiatus. Klecker was named first-team All-Pac-12 three times, the All-Region team four teams and won the regional meet twice. On the track, he added another six All-America honors, three each in the 3k and 5k. He owns the Colorado soil mile and 3,000 record and is the CU indoor 5k record holder. His performance of scoring 14 points at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships were the most by a CU male in any NCAA track championship.
Montez set 51 records during his CU career, 37 outright and 14 others that he tied; the most significant included finishing first in passing yards (9,649) and touchdown passes (63), second in pass attempts (1,312) and completions (820), 56th in rushing yards (960), but sixth in true rushing yards by a quarterback (1,556) and first in total offense (10,609; just the second to eclipse the 10,000-yard mark). He started the second most games at quarterback in school annals with 39 (compiled a 17-22 record), the 17 wins tying for the fifth-most. He started the last 36 games of his career, snapping the old mark of 31 at the position. The first player at Colorado to complete over 60 percent of his passes in four straight seasons, he also had four streaks of 80 or more passes without an interception, including the record of 172.
There were two other finalists, O'Loughlin and Sondre Bollum (Nordic skiing); O'Loughlin has also opted to return for the 2020-21 season for another shot at closing out his collegiate career with the NCAA ruling.
Magnus Boee of the Nordic ski team won the Male Freshman of the Year honor. He became the second men's Nordic freshman to win three or more races in program history, a feat Rune Oedegaard accomplished in 2012. He immediately established himself as one of the nation's top skiers, finishing as an All-American and first-team All-RMISA performer. He finished second in the RMISA MVP race and was the No. 2 qualifier for the NCAA Championships out of the RMISA, and the league's top seeded skier in the classic discipline. He competed in all 11 races, finishing outside the top 10 just once with seven top five finishes, five podium appearances and three race wins.
Other finalists were Kashon Harrison (cross country), Adam Matteson (golf) and K.J. Trujillo (football).
Jaylyn Sherrod of the basketball team claimed the Female Freshman Athlete of the Year Award. She was a spark for the Buffs in her first season on the hardwood, as the freshman from Birmingham, Ala., led Colorado with 152 assists and was second in scoring, averaging 9.9 points per game. Sherrod posted 11 assists in her CU debut, marking the most assists by a player in her Colorado debut since Ann Troyan (11 in her debut against Colorado State in 1979). Sherrod became the second-fastest Buff to reach 100 assists in program history, doing so in just 18 games, with her 152 assists the ninth-most in a single season at CU.
The four other finalists were Tessa Barton (soccer), Sophia Derivan (tennis), Anna-Maria Dietze (Nordic skiing) and Sterling Parker (volleyball).
SAAC members selected several award winners, including the staff member of the year, of which athletic director Rick George was selected for the third time in his seven years heading the department, and the Student Athlete Support Award, which was presented to the Facilities and Custodial Crew, also for the third time. Both were cited especially for their leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic this spring.
Other nominees were MT Eisner and Adam Ringler (strength and conditioning), Jedediah Herb (academics), Marissa Holliday (trainer) and Chef Carl Solomon (performance nutrition). The other two support award finalists were Psychological Health & Performance and Sports Medicine (trainers and doctors).
In addition, SAAC members nominate and then select by vote on the CU's Sports' "Moment of the Year." From a list of solid choices, they selected they reverted back to last June but after the 2018-19 CUSPY's to select Dani Jones winning the 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In the process, she became the first female CU athlete to win an NCAA title in c cross country, indoor track and outdoor track (and the second ever overall, joining Adam Goucher). She also tied Jenny Barringer Simpson as one of two CU females to win four NCAA individual titles (and one of six overall to accomplish the quartet of wins).
Other nominees for the moment of the year included Joe Klecker running the fastest mile in the state of Colorado (4:01.0) on January 31 in the CU Indoor Invitational; the men's cross country team winning the 2019 Pac-12 title; the CU ski team's accomplishments in the 30th season under head coach Richard Rokos; and CU rallying from down 17-0 to defeat Nebraska in overtime, 34-31, last September 7, a game that featured the longest play from scrimmage in CU history (a 96-yard pass from Steven Montez to K.D. Nixon).
The SAAC Distinguished Service Award, presented to senior members who contributed significantly to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee during their CU careers, was awarded to five student-athletes: Quinessa Caylao-Do (women's basketball), Megan McGrew (alpine skiing), Andrew Potyk (Nordic skiing), Paxton Smith (cross country and track) and Rachel Whipple (volleyball).
The Spencer Nelson Buffalo Spirit Award, formerly the Athlete's Choice Award and renamed for the CU skier who died in a tragic hiking accident in August 2010, was presented to all spring sport athletes who had their seasons cut short due to the pandemic; those number well over 100 between men's and women's golf, lacrosse, tennis and men's and women's outdoor track, and in reality, football which never had a single spring practice under new head coach Karl Dorrell (soccer and volleyball spring practices and exhibitions were cancelled as well).
The other nominees were Smith and sophomore Devon Bayer (lacrosse). Smith remained positive and showed good leadership even after losing his spring season due to the pandemic, while Bayer endured a season-ending injury shortly into the 2019 campaign; despite this challenge and her long road to recovery, she displayed an extreme amount of positivity. She continued to put the team first and was determined to get back on the field, and did so this past winter; she scored her first goal back exactly a year later from the injury.
The Ceal Barry Leadership Awards are given to those student-athletes who most effectively inspire their team, the CU campus and the community in general through their exemplary commitment, their composure in the way they represent themselves and in the integrity of their actions. The recipients were Smith, Evan Battey (men's basketball), Jaylon Jackson and Davion Taylor (football), Aubrey Knight (women's basketball) and Valerie Welch (track and field).
The Sports Performance Awards for strength and conditioning accomplishments were presented to sophomores Teddy Takki (alpine skiing) and Kai Volcy (women's basketball).
Originally created in 2001, the annual event remains one of the most popular among the athletes, as they have tailored the function to be the final social gathering solely amongst themselves for the last time before finals and summer vacation, if not for a longer period of time for those graduating. It is believed to be one of the only events in the country almost entirely organized by the student-athletes, and certainly was among, if not, the first.
Usually over 300 student-athletes, coaches, staff and C-Club board members attend the annual year-end banquet, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, it could not be business as usual. Thus the idea to present the awards online in a "Virtual CUSPY's" was born, organized by CU's Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) along with BuffVision to honor athletic accomplishments for the 2019-20 athletic year.
A replay of the virtual CUSPY festivities are available to view at https://www.facebook.com/coloradoathletics and on https://www.youtube.com/buffstv.
The Male and Female Athlete of the Year honors were both shared in the same year for just the third time since their inception back in 1984-85.
Seniors Taylor Kornieck (soccer) and Mikaela Tommy (alpine skiing) were selected as co-recipients of the Female Athlete of the Year honor.
Kornieck started all 82 games in her career and became the first player in CU history to surpass 100 career points. She wrapped up her Colorado career as the team's all-time leader in points (102) and tied the school record for career assists with 24. Last fall, she earned her second consecutive All-American honor (third team), totaling career-highs in points (30) and goals (12). She ranked seventh in the NCAA with 5.0 shots per game and was tied for the nation's lead with a perfect 4-for-4 showing in penalty kicks. Kornieck helped the Buffs back to the NCAA Tournament, her third trip in four years, with four game-winning goals and five multi-point matches. She concluded the season with 1.36 points per game, ranking fourth in CU history.
Tommy finished 10 races with nine podium appearances and five wins, all in the giant slalom. Her five GS wins were the most for a season and career in CU women's alpine history. She was named the National Skier of the Year by the Ski Coaches Association, the MVP and Skier of the Year by the RMISA and first-team All-RMISA. She also won eight runs (each alpine race consists of two runs), matching the CU record of Lucie Zikova and became the second skier in CU history behind Zikova to win multiple runs in both disciplines in the same season.
Dani Jones (indoor track), was the other finalist; her senior year competition was cut short, as she only raced in a handful of school events, with her eligibility complete in cross country, the indoor NCAA's along with the entire outdoor season cancelled.
The Male Athlete of the Year honor was shared between Joe Klecker (cross country) and McKinley Wright IV (basketball).
Klecker became CU's first Pac-12 Men's Cross Country Champion as he led the Buffs to their seventh Pac-12 team title. His second place finish at NCAA's was the best CU finish on the men's side since Dathan Ritzenhein won in 2003. The Buffs finished third as a team, just one point behind Northern Arizona. He earned a pair of indoor All-America honors in the 3,000 and 5,000-meter runs (awarded for qualifying since there was no actual NCAA meet, but he likely would have been a top finisher). He broke the state of Colorado soil mile record (4:01.00) at the CU invitational and recorded the second-fastest 3k time by at Buff at the prestigious Millrose Games before breaking his own school record in the 5,000 at the Husky Classic.
Wright was named first team All-Pac-12 for the second straight season and was named to the league's All-Defensive team, and was also selected to the NABC and USBWA All-District teams. Wright led the Buffaloes with 14.4 points and 5.0 assists per game, and was second on the team in steals (36), blocked shots (11) and free throws made (95) along with being third in rebounding (5.7 per game) and 3-point field goals made (39). He led the Pac-12 in assists during conference games (5.7 per), and had six double-doubles, the most by any Pac-12 point guard.
The other finalists were Nate Landman (football) and Daniel O'Loughlin (golf).
Jones was the unanimous selection for the Female Career Athletic Achievement Award. Her school record-tying four NCAA individual titles topped her many accomplishments, which also included being selected three times as CU's Female Athlete of the Year. Still, the first to be recognized four different times, her other honors included the 2017 and 2018 Pac-12 Cross Country Athlete of the Year, USTFCCCA Athlete of the Year for cross country (2018) and indoor track (2020) and the 2018-19 Honda Sports Award winner for cross country.
Jones did have some solid competition for the honor, as she topped a talented pool that produced four other finalists, Kornieck, Tommy, Kirsty Hodgkins (golf) and Julia Lisella (lacrosse). Hodgkins and Lisella have both since decided to take advantage of the NCAA ruling for spring sport athletes to gain an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic and will return this fall.
Klecker and Steven Montez (football) shared the Male Career Athletic Achievement Award. Klecker is a three-time All-American in cross country, which includes a second-place finish at the 2019 NCAA championship. He won the 2019 Pac-12 individual title and helped CU bring the team title back to Boulder for the seventh time in nine seasons after a two-year hiatus. Klecker was named first-team All-Pac-12 three times, the All-Region team four teams and won the regional meet twice. On the track, he added another six All-America honors, three each in the 3k and 5k. He owns the Colorado soil mile and 3,000 record and is the CU indoor 5k record holder. His performance of scoring 14 points at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships were the most by a CU male in any NCAA track championship.
Montez set 51 records during his CU career, 37 outright and 14 others that he tied; the most significant included finishing first in passing yards (9,649) and touchdown passes (63), second in pass attempts (1,312) and completions (820), 56th in rushing yards (960), but sixth in true rushing yards by a quarterback (1,556) and first in total offense (10,609; just the second to eclipse the 10,000-yard mark). He started the second most games at quarterback in school annals with 39 (compiled a 17-22 record), the 17 wins tying for the fifth-most. He started the last 36 games of his career, snapping the old mark of 31 at the position. The first player at Colorado to complete over 60 percent of his passes in four straight seasons, he also had four streaks of 80 or more passes without an interception, including the record of 172.
There were two other finalists, O'Loughlin and Sondre Bollum (Nordic skiing); O'Loughlin has also opted to return for the 2020-21 season for another shot at closing out his collegiate career with the NCAA ruling.
Magnus Boee of the Nordic ski team won the Male Freshman of the Year honor. He became the second men's Nordic freshman to win three or more races in program history, a feat Rune Oedegaard accomplished in 2012. He immediately established himself as one of the nation's top skiers, finishing as an All-American and first-team All-RMISA performer. He finished second in the RMISA MVP race and was the No. 2 qualifier for the NCAA Championships out of the RMISA, and the league's top seeded skier in the classic discipline. He competed in all 11 races, finishing outside the top 10 just once with seven top five finishes, five podium appearances and three race wins.
Other finalists were Kashon Harrison (cross country), Adam Matteson (golf) and K.J. Trujillo (football).
Jaylyn Sherrod of the basketball team claimed the Female Freshman Athlete of the Year Award. She was a spark for the Buffs in her first season on the hardwood, as the freshman from Birmingham, Ala., led Colorado with 152 assists and was second in scoring, averaging 9.9 points per game. Sherrod posted 11 assists in her CU debut, marking the most assists by a player in her Colorado debut since Ann Troyan (11 in her debut against Colorado State in 1979). Sherrod became the second-fastest Buff to reach 100 assists in program history, doing so in just 18 games, with her 152 assists the ninth-most in a single season at CU.
The four other finalists were Tessa Barton (soccer), Sophia Derivan (tennis), Anna-Maria Dietze (Nordic skiing) and Sterling Parker (volleyball).
SAAC members selected several award winners, including the staff member of the year, of which athletic director Rick George was selected for the third time in his seven years heading the department, and the Student Athlete Support Award, which was presented to the Facilities and Custodial Crew, also for the third time. Both were cited especially for their leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic this spring.
Other nominees were MT Eisner and Adam Ringler (strength and conditioning), Jedediah Herb (academics), Marissa Holliday (trainer) and Chef Carl Solomon (performance nutrition). The other two support award finalists were Psychological Health & Performance and Sports Medicine (trainers and doctors).
In addition, SAAC members nominate and then select by vote on the CU's Sports' "Moment of the Year." From a list of solid choices, they selected they reverted back to last June but after the 2018-19 CUSPY's to select Dani Jones winning the 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In the process, she became the first female CU athlete to win an NCAA title in c cross country, indoor track and outdoor track (and the second ever overall, joining Adam Goucher). She also tied Jenny Barringer Simpson as one of two CU females to win four NCAA individual titles (and one of six overall to accomplish the quartet of wins).
Other nominees for the moment of the year included Joe Klecker running the fastest mile in the state of Colorado (4:01.0) on January 31 in the CU Indoor Invitational; the men's cross country team winning the 2019 Pac-12 title; the CU ski team's accomplishments in the 30th season under head coach Richard Rokos; and CU rallying from down 17-0 to defeat Nebraska in overtime, 34-31, last September 7, a game that featured the longest play from scrimmage in CU history (a 96-yard pass from Steven Montez to K.D. Nixon).
The SAAC Distinguished Service Award, presented to senior members who contributed significantly to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee during their CU careers, was awarded to five student-athletes: Quinessa Caylao-Do (women's basketball), Megan McGrew (alpine skiing), Andrew Potyk (Nordic skiing), Paxton Smith (cross country and track) and Rachel Whipple (volleyball).
The Spencer Nelson Buffalo Spirit Award, formerly the Athlete's Choice Award and renamed for the CU skier who died in a tragic hiking accident in August 2010, was presented to all spring sport athletes who had their seasons cut short due to the pandemic; those number well over 100 between men's and women's golf, lacrosse, tennis and men's and women's outdoor track, and in reality, football which never had a single spring practice under new head coach Karl Dorrell (soccer and volleyball spring practices and exhibitions were cancelled as well).
The other nominees were Smith and sophomore Devon Bayer (lacrosse). Smith remained positive and showed good leadership even after losing his spring season due to the pandemic, while Bayer endured a season-ending injury shortly into the 2019 campaign; despite this challenge and her long road to recovery, she displayed an extreme amount of positivity. She continued to put the team first and was determined to get back on the field, and did so this past winter; she scored her first goal back exactly a year later from the injury.
The Ceal Barry Leadership Awards are given to those student-athletes who most effectively inspire their team, the CU campus and the community in general through their exemplary commitment, their composure in the way they represent themselves and in the integrity of their actions. The recipients were Smith, Evan Battey (men's basketball), Jaylon Jackson and Davion Taylor (football), Aubrey Knight (women's basketball) and Valerie Welch (track and field).
The Sports Performance Awards for strength and conditioning accomplishments were presented to sophomores Teddy Takki (alpine skiing) and Kai Volcy (women's basketball).
Originally created in 2001, the annual event remains one of the most popular among the athletes, as they have tailored the function to be the final social gathering solely amongst themselves for the last time before finals and summer vacation, if not for a longer period of time for those graduating. It is believed to be one of the only events in the country almost entirely organized by the student-athletes, and certainly was among, if not, the first.
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