Blackburn Athletics Highlight the 2023-24 Season with Beaver Awards

CARLINVILLE, IL – Blackburn College Athletics hosted the Beaver Awards, an annual celebration of the teams and student athletes who competed during the past year.

The night was highlighted by the presentation of the Male and Female Athletes of the Year, which went to Izayah Talmadge and Holly Heuermann.

Talmadge was the male winner after guiding the men's basketball team to a return to the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament. Through the season, the senior led the team with 17 points, and 7.6 rebounds which also placed him fourth in the league for scoring and fifth for rebounding. He earned Player of the Week honors after scoring 26 points in a win over Eureka College. He then went on to score a career high 31 points at Greenville. In total he tallied 20 games of double figure points and had five double-doubles. He ended the season by being named First Team All-SLAIC and was selected to the All-Defensive Team as well.

Heuerman is a two-sport athlete who helped guide both the volleyball and softball teams to SLIAC Tournament appearances. In volleyball she appeared in 119 sets and finished second on the team with 331 digs and was third with 40 aces. She tied a career high with 22 digs in a win over Washington & Jefferson College, and also tied her career mark with five aces against Spalding University. During the softball season, the centerfielder has batted .327 this season and has 32 hits with 23 runs scored. She also has six doubles and four home runs while knocking in 16 RBI's. She also leads the team with five stolen bases.

Odis Grissom and Kenadee Frey were named Freshman Athletes of the Year. Grissom appeared in 23 of 26 games for the men's basketball team where he averaged 15 minutes a game and scored 7.1 points while reaching double figures seven times. He set a career high with 17 points in the team's home game with Principia College and had three steals in their win at Principia.

Frey was an impactful player for three teams during her debut season at Blackburn. The freshman led the volleyball team with 54 aces and was second on the team with 334 assists and third with 278 digs. She then joined the basketball team and averaged nearly 20 minutes per game while scoring 4.5 points and four rebounds. She also scored a career-high 10 points in the team's win over Alverno College. During the softball season, Frey is currently leading for the team lead with 32 hits, has a team-best 29 runs scored, has nine doubles, four triples, and three home runs. Her four triples place her second in the SLIAC.

Blackburn also acknowledged two athletes who made big breakthroughs this season, Brett Lander and Julianna Tabian.

Lander is a sophomore who has seen all his stats drastically improve this season as he is currently second on the baseball team with 30 hits. He has also more than tripled his runs scored and more than doubled his batting average. He also has added 15 RBI's this season.

A junior, Tabian is second in the SLIAC with a .471 batting average and has a .524 slugging percentage which is third. She has 24 hits with five doubles, has more than tripled her RBI's and has improved her batting average by over 100 points. She has also picked up four wins from the pitching circle this season.

The department also showcased great games as they gave away the Men's and Women's Games of the Year, which went to the men's basketball win over Lyon and the volleyball team's victory over Webster. The men's game saw Blackburn come back from a 13-point deficit with 12 minutes left in regulation to force overtime, then went on to defeat the Scots 91-88 by outscoring them 13-10 in the second overtime. The volleyball team's win over Webster helped propel the Beavers to win five of their next six matches to get the team into the SLIAC Tournament. It also marked their first win over the Gorloks in many years.

The Beaver Award, which goes to male and female that shows they are truly invested in the success of all student athletes and teams on and off the playing surface went Andrew Lozano and Molly Koskey.

Elizabeth Morris of women's basketball and cross country and Natalie Smith of softball were named the Service Award winners for their community service.

Women's Basketball received the BeavUP Award which was presented to the team that showed the most "grit" throughout the year while handling adversity.

The Team Spirit Award went to the baseball team.