Second annual Lippy Awards honor excellence in athletics

Student athletes traded their uniforms for formal wear for the second annual Lippy Awards Wednesday evening in Allen Arena. The Lippys honor athletes, coaches and others who contribute in various ways to Lipscomb sports teams. Before the show, guests enjoyed live music from Marquee Mayfield and showed off their formal wear at photo booths. The show was hosted by soccer coach Chris Klotz and cross county coach Marcus Evans. To begin, the James R. Byers Award was presented to senior field thrower April Terry and senior baseball player Josh Lee. It is the highest award given to student-athletes. Terry quoted the Mary Mary song “God in Me” in her acceptance speech, saying, “I hope that you see that I’m really not that outstanding, but all of the accolades, the records, the titles – it’s all God working.” Lee, who made his way from Vandy to Central Arizona College and finally landed at Lipscomb, said that he’s blessed for the opportunities at Lipscomb. “This is a great accomplishment, but the one thing I’ll remember is all the relationships I’ve built with my teammates,” Lee said. Golfer Dawson Armstrong and cross country runner Paige Stoner took home the male and female Freshman of the Year awards. Senior soccer player Luke Gearin won International Player of the Year. Women’s soccer coach Kevin O’Brien received the Don Meyer Head Coach of the Year for his inspiration to the athletic program. “I think I have the best job in the world,” O’Brien said. “I’m so thankful to get to work with the girls I work with every day.” Luke Syverson, who coaches track and field, was...

Track and Field to open outdoor season with first ever home meet

The Lipscomb track and field team has anticipated hosting Belmont in a home meet for some time, and now it finally gets to do this Friday as the outdoor season kicks off. The track and field Battle of the Boulevard is historic for the Bisons because it is the first home meet the team has ever hosted. “I think it’s a good idea that we have a home meet, and I’m kind of excited, being a senior, that it is the first home meet that we have ever hosted,” senior sprinter Kenny Smith said. Even though running at home is exciting for the team, they said there are still a few factors they feel uneasy about. Smith said that the team’s motivation could be higher. “It’s hard [to get motivated] because some people aren’t taking it as seriously as it should be taken, like a normal, big track meet,” Smith said. “We’re not really looking at this meet as a meet, we’re looking more to it as practice, which is never good going into a meet — thinking of it as practice when you should be thinking of it as a meet — as competition.” Regardless of the team’s degree of motivation toward the meet, the team is excited since it is the first outdoor meet of the season. At the end of the indoor season, the Bisons showed some success. Sophomore Wayne Newman set the Lipscomb and Atlantic Sun record for the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.95 seconds, and Madi Talbert, Sally Larson, Barbara Lee Ball and Paige Stoner dominated the 5000m. “I think we ended on a...

Men’s and women’s cross country sweep A-Sun titles

Another year, another successful season for the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country programs. The Women scored 21 points in the Atlantic Sun Championships to secure their fourth consecutive conference title. Madi Talbert, Paige Stoner, and Dani Walker swept the top three spots, taking first, second and third respectively. All three runners, along with Sally Larson who finished sixth overall, earned spots on the A-Sun All-Conference First Team. Stoner was also named A-Sun Freshman of the Year. Barbara Lee Ball, Kayla Montgomery and Minna Fields took spots on the All-Conference Second Team. Ball and Montgomery finished ninth and 13th in the A-Sun Championship. The Men’s team also had a stand-out day in route to winning their second A-Sun Championship in a row. Juan Gonzalez, Daniel Gardner and Christian Freeman took third, fourth and fifth place in the competition. All three also placed on the A-Sun All-Conference First Team. The Bisons fourth and fifth runners, junior Jared Wingerter and sophomore Jared Daedler, both set personal records in route to finshing ninth and 15th overall. Wingerter earned a spot on the All-Conference Second Team. “Jared Wingadner had a great race,” head coach Benton Reed said. “He passed two Northern Kentucky guys in the end with an awesome finish. I knew Jared Dadeler was going to have a good race because he just kept on moving up throughout the race and by the end he was where he needed to be and it really made the difference for the team. Without him, we wouldn’t have won.” The Men’s team had made it a goal all season to win Conference again, while the women’s...

Lipscomb cross country warms up in second home meet at Vanderbilt Classic

During Saturday’s meet, there was a 30 degrees difference in temperature from the Bisons’ last race at Vaughn’s Gap, the Belmont Opener. Two weeks ago, the men’s and women’s cross country teams were running out of clothing items to remove in the sweltering heat. Two weeks later at the Vanderbilt Classic, they were struggling to find enough to put on. At around 60 degrees, the brisk, overcast morning lengthened their warm-up some, but overall the temperature was welcomed by the participating athletes and fans alike. With nearly double the attendance from the Belmont Opener, Vaughn’s Gap was electric. “We’re thrilled with our women’s performance today. We finished 4th overall without our top three women out there, so, great performances,” head coach Bill Taylor said. Despite withholding Sally Larson, Danielle Walker and Madi Talbert from the competition the Lady Bisons showed that they still have a lot to bring to the table. The trio of runers will compete in Boston in two weeks and coach Taylor is hoping the girls will make a statement. “Maybe not visible to everybody because of not running our top three, but we’re really happy and we feel like it’s setting us up awesomely for the end of the season,” Taylor said. Lipscomb sophomore Barbara Ball finished with a time of 17:43.54. Ball, who is the current Atlantic Sun Runner of the Week, stepped up for the Lady Bisons in her teammates’ absence. “Today was great. The weather was so much better than our last race here,” Ball said. “We added a few girls which definitely helped out the pack. Our solid pack was able...

Lipscomb cross country open with great effort in heat at Belmont

300 cars lined Highway 100 at Vaughn’s Gap where the 2014 Belmont Opener took place. The sunshine was reflecting off of the bright green grass, however the striking visuals were not enough to mask the 94 degree heat that weighed heavily upon the contestants. “It was hot. Tough conditions, tough course,” said head coach Bill Taylor. After the women’s race a girl could be seen being lifted into an ambulance. Luckily, most of the contestants were able to recover quickly. Lipscomb freshman Paige Stoner enjoyed her time at her first ever college meet. “The whole thing was really exhilarating to be with so many girls, that’s so different from high school,” Stoner said. “It helped a lot to know that I have teammates that I need to push myself for.” Lipscomb sophomore Barbara Ball was excited for the team to get out and race for the first time of the new season, and to be able to put all their hard work to the test. Lipscomb held back a number of girls from racing in the meet and Kaitlyn Llewellyn, a senior at Lipscomb, mentioned that working with less people was something to get used to. “It will be nicer next week when we have more depth,” Llewellyn said, “It was pretty hot so times weren’t great, but it was a good way to start the season. It was a lot of fun.” Coach Bill Taylor said that the girls ran well, and that their effort was there. As for times, errors and protests delayed the results for the Belmont Opener. The women’s race was being reviewed due to...