Beck honored at W&L
Washington and Lee soccer player Gillen Beck of Blacksburg has received the school’s William D. McHenry Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award.
A mathematics and physics double-major, Beck was a four-year letter winner and team captain for the soccer team as a senior. The goalkeeper was a three-time All-ODAC honoree, earning first team honors as a sophomore, second team laurels as a junior and third team honors as a senior.
He twice earned the ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance Men’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award and he was a two-time CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District selection. He was a CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-America honoree and United Soccer Coaches Second Team Scholar All-Region honoree as a senior.
Beck was named NSCAA First Team All-South Region as a sophomore and Third Team All-South Region as a junior, and he also garnered VaSID Second Team All-State laurels as a junior.
He played in 58 career games, starting 57 of them. He recorded 191 saves with 50 goals allowed for a 0.88 goals-against average, which ranks third in program history.
He also claimed a .793 career save percentage and 16 career shutouts, good for a tie for third all-time at W&L. He was also a recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Knowles third at MEC meet
Bailey Knowles, a rising senior at Concord University, finished third in the 3K Steeple Chase at the recent Mountain East Conference (MEC) track championship.
This was only the second time the former Christiansburg High School athlete had run the steeplechase this season. Her time was 11:57. She also finished third in the 5K.
Lewis on World team
Virginia Tech redshirt freshman Mekhi Lewis will represent the United States on this year’s Junior World Team after winning the 74kg title at the 2018 World Team Trials on Saturday in Rochester, Minn.
Lewis becomes the just the second Hokie to make a Junior World Team while wrestling at Virginia Tech, joining Sean Gray who made the team in 1999. Joey Dance also made a Junior World Team as a senior at Christiansburg High School in 2012 prior to enrolling at Tech.
After defeating Wyoming’s Hayden Hastings in the first round, 8-6, Lewis knocked off Oklahoma State signee Travis Wittlake and 2018 All-American Alex Marinelli of Iowa en route to clinching a spot in the 2- out-of-three championship series with Iowa’s Jeremiah Moody. Moody, the U.S. Open champion at 74kg, dropped a 12-1 tech fall in the first bout before Lewis took care of business with a 10-0 first period tech fall that gave him title.
Lewis and Team USA will compete at the Junior World Championships in Slovakia from Sept. 17-23.
Wise, Nardi honored by BS
For the second time on the season, Radford captured two weekly conference awards as Luke Wise was named Big South Player of the Week and Andrew Nardi earned Big South Relief Pitcher of the Week, the conference announced Monday morning.
Radford finished the regular season with six weekly awards, earning player of the week and reliever of the week each twice throughout the year.
Earning his first weekly award of his career; Wise went 5 for 12 on the week with six walks, five runs, two triples, a double and an RBI. He was 3 for 5 on the base path to give him 9 in 12 attempts on the season.
In Saturday’s doubleheader against Campbell; Wise went 3 for 5 with three runs, two triples, two walks and an RBI. The two triples give him five on the season, which ranks 30th in the country, while increasing in his career total to eight to rank eighth in program history.
Since returning to the lineup on April 25 after missing 28 games due to a thumb injury, Wise is hitting .294 (15 for 51) with 16 runs scored and 15 walks.
Nardi collects his first relief pitcher of the week honor as tossing four shutout innings out of the bullpen, allowing only a hit and striking out eight in Thursday’s 3-2 win over Campbell. The eight strikeouts are a season high for Nardi, falling one shy of matching a career best. The lefty has tossed eight consecutive shutout innings over three outings.
The junior holds a 2.53 ERA in Big South play, striking out 11 in 10.2 frames, holding opposing teams to a .179 average.
