WNCC Athletic Banquet Award Winners

Photos of the Athletic Award Night can be viewed by clicking following the following link -- http://wncccougars.albumpost.com/cougar-special

Western Nebraska Community College’s Soriana Pacheco continues raking in the honors after the WNCC Athletic banquet on Wednesday.

The setter from Venezuela earned the Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year honor after helping her team to the National Championship in November. Pacheco also garnered MVP honors off the volleyball team.

while Pacheco snared the Female honor, men’s soccer player Edwin Enriquez took home the top honors for the Male Athlete of the Year. Enriquez also earned another honor on the night; that of top Grade Point Average – Male.

The other big winners on the night included Gering High’s Stacie Meisner. Meisner received recognition for three honors. She earned the Cougar Award, which is given to an outstanding athlete that shows excellence off and on the court, as well as leadership. Meisner also earned the top Grade Point Average – Female. Meisner also picked up the volleyball team’s Cougar Pride Award. The Cougar Pride Award is given to a player that is the epitome of what a Cougar athlete should be with sportsmanship, and work ethic on and off the playing surface.

The softball team also garnered a huge award on the night, claiming their fourth straight team GPA honor.

The night also included each team presenting their MVP and Cougar Pride winner. MVP honors in the seven Cougar sports included Jessie McNabb, softball; Pacheco, volleyball; Tawny Drexler, women’s basketball; Steven Estrada, men’s soccer; Stacey Agnew, women’s soccer; and Rich Miller, baseball. Men’s basketball coach Brian Joyce didn’t give a MVP honor saying that all through the year, different players stepped up at times and picking just one player was to hard to do.

As for Cougar Pride winners, though, Joyce presented Chris Hamblin with that award. Other award winners included Lauren Mills, softball; Meisner, volleyball; Emma Beddome, women’s basketball; Zach Gillis, baseball; Aaron Oesterle, men’s soccer; and Amanda Arrant, women’s soccer.

athletic Director Jennifer Pedersen also presented Sports Racquet and TEAM Chevrolet the Patron of the Year awards. She also gave special recognition to women’s basketball coach Dave Harnish, who has won 20 games every season in his 20 years at the college.