JCSU Celebrates the 2018 Season at the Smitty's Golden Awards

Charlotte, N.C. (April 30, 2018) – The Johnson C. Smith University Department of Athletics handed out the yearly athletic wards at the annual Smitty Golden Awards presentation at Grimes Lounge on Monday evening.

Each sport gave four awards to deserving Golden Bull student-athletes. Those awards include team MVP, Most Improved, Top Newcomer and Coaches Awards.

In addition to the individual awards, team awards included highest team GPA and male and female team of the year.

The event concluded with the awarding of the Pettis Norman Male and Female Athlete of the Year Awards.  The Pettis Norman Award is awarded to the student-athlete judged to have had the best overall season.

Halle Parker (Magnolia, Del.) earned the Pettis Norman Female Athlete of the Year after she recently completed her first year wearing the Gold and Blue. This past season, she returned a perfect 10-0 mark in CIAA matches.  Playing at No. 1 singles, she dropped just one set in league matches and also returned an impressive 9-2 mark in doubles action alongside teammate Jada Strickland.

Overall, she completed the season with a 16-8 singles mark while in doubles matches she finished with a 15-11 overall record.

For her performance, she was named to the All-CIAA team and was tabbed as the CIAA Rookie of the Year and helped the JCSU Women's tennis team advance to the CIAA Championship match.

Senior men's basketball player Robert Davis (West Friendship, Md.) was tabbed as the Pettis Norman Male Athlete of the Year after completing his four-year career with the Golden Bulls with 1,606 points while shooting 42.5% for his career (516-1215), 34.2% from long range (150-438) and 82.3% from the free throw line (424-515).

This past season, he earned First-Team All-CIAA honors and was named the CIAA Player of the Year, becoming just the third Golden Bull to achieve this honor. He also was named to the NABC All-Region team and received the most votes in earning a First Team selection by the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Directors Association while helping the JCSU men's basketball team advance to the CIAA Championship game.
 
2018 JCSU Athletics Awards Honorees

	MVP	Most Improved	Newcomer	Coaches Award
Bowling	Brittany Brown	Anaiah Mitchell	Brittany Brown	Kaitlin Santos
Cheerleading	Temi Ashorobi	Jasmine Jackson	Aiesha McDowell	Janiya Miller
Dance Team	Asia Judge	Eshe Patterson	Destiny Coppage	Jazz Jones
Football	Carlo Thomas	Kenston Oxendine Marcel Toran	Octaveious Miles Savon Williams	Terrance Ervin
Golf	DeJuan Powell	Austin Beatty	Myles Moore	Wesley Morgan
Men's Basketball	Robert Davis	Arthur Bennett	Roddric Ross	Christian Kirchman
Women's Basketball	Asha Jordan	JaKeyah McNeil	fLa'Zarea Bowens	Kendall Adams
Cross Country – Men	Dionysius Segers	Isaac Ross	Dionysius Segers	Dionysius Segers
Cross Country - Women	Kianje Pollard	Kianje Pollard	Deja Davis	Ramoya Grandison
Track & Field – Men	Timor Barrett	Zavier Lawrence	Timor Barrett	Dionysius Segers
Track & Field – Women	Kianje Pollard	Kianje Pollard	Delecia McDuffie	Delecia McDuffie
Softball	Evelyn Arguelles	Randasia Daniels	Tatyana Mars	Sanae Nakoa
Men's Tennis	Gerald Miller	Eric Lopez	Desire Johnson	Anthony Jefferson
Women's Tennis	Halle Parker	Aria Springfield	Halle Parker	Aria Springfield
Volleyball	Gorana Bogdanovic	Cydney Calhoun	Taylor Hendrickson	Azha McNeil