(left to right) Val Warren, Sandy Page, Chip Sherer
Erskine
Athletes Recognized at Banquet
For only the seventh time in 32 years, Erskine
College had co-winners of its highest athletic honor,
the Jake Todd Award, when Greenwood's Val Warren and
Columbia's Sandy Page were recognized at an awards
banquet culminating the year in athletics.
Warren, one of Erskine's most prolific women's
basketball players ever, was named Freshman of the
Year in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference in
1997. She would score 1,534 career points, fourth
all-time at Erskine, and grab 745 rebounds, also
fourth all-time. She was a two-time First Team
All-CVAC player and an All-American candidate until a
knee injury cost her the majority of her senior
season.
Page, a two-sport star at Erskine, was a
three-time all-conference selection in cross country,
and owns the Erskine record time of 20:22. She also
played on the women's soccer team, which won the 1997
CVAC championship.
The Jake Todd Award recognizes outstanding
leadership, character, and academic and athletic
achievement.
Also recognized at the banquet was the Erskine
men's tennis team, ranked No. 28 in the nation and
currently competing in the NCAA East Regional
Tournament in Anderson. The men finished the regular
season 15-7, second in the CVAC with a 9-1 mark.
Junior Pratik Shrivastava of India is ranked among
the top 50 players in the nation.
The Erskine baseball team had a record-setting
season offensively led by senior first-team All-CVAC
outfielder Joe Whitmer of Canton, Ohio, who finished
his career by setting school records with 37 homers,
156 RBI, 64 doubles, and 157 runs scored. This
season, the Fleet broke a 101-year-old homerun record
by hitting 55, 14 more than the old record. They also
set team records for hits with 511 and runs with 348.
Erskine had 16 Academic All-CVAC performers,
including Kyle Bowers of Belvedere in tennis; Lucas
Hollar of Summerville in soccer and cross country;
Kim Gaymon of Macon, Ga., in soccer; Barron Suarez of
Mt. Pleasant in soccer; Kevin Williamson of Jackson
in basketball; Ellen Cotter of Greenville in soccer;
Amy Gray of Iva in softball; Kristin Shinn of
Mooresville, N.C., in cross country; Sue Kahrs of
Bogart, Ga., in soccer; Laura Whitlock of Columbia in
cross country; Kate Hinchey of Sullivan's Island in
soccer; Mitch Baker of Simpsonville in soccer, Jason
Burton of Abbeville in soccer; Crystal Cooper of
Easley in soccer; Greg Clanton of Greenville in cross
country; and Heather Shealy of Taylorsville, N.C. in
cross country.
Erskine's first-team all-conference selections
included Page, Whitmer, Shrivastava, and junior
women's soccer standout Virginia Murphy of
Greenville. Second-team all-conference selection
included Joseph Lloyd of Greenwood in tennis; Klaus
Ritschewald of South Africa in tennis; Melissa Mahon
of Sacramento, Calif., in softball; Melanie Stukes of
Iva in softball; Shea Hall of Ware Shoals in
softball; and Cotter. Honorable mention
all-conference selections were Allen Lang of
Carrollton, Ala., in baseball; Warren, Matt McKenzie
of Columbia in tennis; and Dhoud Samba of Houston,
Texas, in soccer.
Team MVPs included David Wenger of Mt. Pleasant in
men's soccer; Cotter in women's soccer; Page in
women's cross country; Kyle Setzer of Irmo in men's
cross country; Williamson in men's basketball (Red
Myers Award); Warren in women's basketball; Whitmer
in baseball; Hall in softball; McKenzie in men's
tennis; Laura Taylor of Greenville in women's tennis;
and Erin Hicks of Sevierville, Tenn., in equestrian.
