Scott Groner was named Male Athlete of the Year and Erica Rottinghaus was named Female Athlete of the Year at the Missouri Western/St. Joseph News-Press 16th annual Student-Athlete Honors Banquet in April.
During the 2014 season, Groner, a senior football player, made the MIAA Academic Honor Roll and was named to the Don Hansen NCAA Division II All-America Team and second-team Don Hansen All-Super Region Three Team. He earned first-team All-MIAA honors and played in all 11 games, punting 60 times for a total of 2,533 yards and a 42.2 yards-per-punt average.
In her senior year alone, volleyball player Rottinghaus earned AVCA All-American honorable mention honors, was AVCA all-district first team and first-team All-MIAA. In the classroom, she made the MIAA Academic Honor Roll and was named an MIAA scholar-athlete. She was also selected to the CoSida academic all-district team and made the Captial One Academic All-America first team. On the court, she played in 30 matches, starting in 28, and led the team with 396 kills and an average of 3.60 kills per set.
Groner and Rottinghaus also were recipients of the Tom Smith Career Achievement Award, introduced at last year’s banquet to honor an outstanding career-long contributor and named after the school’s hall of fame men’s basketball coach. Joining them as a Smith Award recipient was Griffons softball’s senior second baseman Tiffany Gillaspy.
Senior soccer forward A.J. Powers claimed the James J. McMillen Award, given to the graduating athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average, and women’s basketball senior forward Alex Saxen won the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Volunteer of the Year Award.