Highlighting the annual honors were the national hitting percentage leader Martina Samadan (Split, Croatia) and seven-time WAC champion Shaddye Melu (Auburn, Wash.), named Eddie O’Brien Male and Female Student-Athlete of the Year. As a senior, Melu won both the conference indoor and outdoor 400 and high jump titles and went to NCAA prelims for the second consecutive season, finishing 19th in the entire west region in the high jump. Samadan was the No. 1 attacker in Division I volleyball, the first Redhawk volleyball player to lead the nation in a statistical category. She led the team to the most wins in school history and surpassed the 1,000 career kills mark as a middle blocker.
The national leader in goals, David Olsen (Auburn, Wash.), and track and field superstar Mandie Maddux (Gresham, Ore.) received the Bill Fenton 101 Club Male and Female Athlete of the Year awards. Olsen was a MAC Hermann trophy semifinalist and a First Team All-American, a leader for the Redhawk men’s soccer team who reached their first DI Sweet 16 in 2015. Maddux finished first in five of seven heptathlon events to earn the title at the WAC Outdoor Championships, also winning gold in the pentathlon at the WAC Indoor Championships.
Men’s soccer’s NCAA Second Round victory vs. UCLA, the first NCAA DI postseason win on campus, earned Competition of the Year accolades in a field that also included Maddux’s heptathlon win, Brendan Westendorf’s (Auburn, Wash.) buzzer-beater vs. Utah Valley, women’s swim’s dual victory over Grand Canyon, and baseball’s win at Sacramento State to earn their first WAC regular season title.
Senior Hamza Haddadi (Shoreline, Wash.) received Director of Athletics Bill Hogan’s Comeback Athlete of the Year award for returning from injury to lead the men’s soccer team through the postseason. Haddadi suffered a broken ankle vs. Air Force, returning to the game to score another goal before departing and missing nine games. He returned in the WAC tournament title game to kick the Redhawks’ only goal of regulation in a 1-1 draw and the final penalty kick to send SU to their second NCAA tournament in three years. In the next game, in the NCAA Tournament Second Round, Haddadi scored the game-winner in a 1-0 victory over perennial powerhouse UCLA.
Fulbright scholar and senior rowing captain Jennifer Cruz (Wapato, Wash.) received the individual Mission Award while the Seattle U volleyball team earned the team Mission Award.
Melu and Geronimo were voted Redhawk Royalty by their peers, an award voted upon by the student-athlete body and which premiered at last year’s awards show.
The women's swim team won the annual pride cup and a $1000 prize for their excellence and support of Redhawk athletics throughout the year.
The annual Mark Escandon Service Award was broken into two categories – external and internal – and given to Seattle U donor and supporter Bill Eisiminger and Academic Performance Coordinator JoAnn Hulbert-Eagan.
The 2015-16 Western Athletic Conference champions – women’s soccer, men’s soccer, baseball, Maddux, Melu, Lila Rice (Redmond, Wash.), Jacques Hebert (Honolulu, Hawai’i), and Blaise Wittenauer-Lee (Portland, Ore.) – were recognized both in the program and prior to the event by ringing the Chapel of St. Ignatius bell.
The following “Freshman 15+” were also recognized for their outstanding work in their first season on their respective teams: Karli White (women’s soccer), Nathan Aune (men’s soccer), Taylor Woo (rowing), Andie Larkins (softball), Zach Wolf (baseball), Print Yusabai (men’s golf), Linette Chua (women’s golf), Michael Schoettler (men’s tennis), Carley Ponchetti (cheer and dance), Olivia Stein (women’s cross country), Eli Boudouris (men’s cross country), Chloe Harris (women’s track), Jake Spurgeon (men’s basketball), Mitchell Crossen (men’s swimming), Jenessa Schulte (women’s swimming), and Mila Duarte (volleyball).
The Seattle U athletics department enjoyed another successful year athletically and academically and looks to continue upward improvement in 2016-17.