Athletics Department Honors Seniors

MARS HILL, N.C. – With yet another athletic season beginning to wind down, the Mars Hill University Athletics Department showcased all the successes of the 2016-17 season at the annual Senior Awards Show on Tuesday, May 2. Blake Covington of men's tennis earned the male highest G.P.A. award, while soccer player Maslyn Greene earned the honors for the ladies. Joe Hillin of MHU football and Adam Lumley of men's golf were named Male Co-Athletes-of-the-Year and Kathryn Boland earned Female Athelte-of-the-Year. Casey Stanek garnered Woman-of-the-Year, while Nathan Jones took home Man-of-the-Year.

Hillin, a senior from Atlanta, Ga., led the Lions to a 5-6 overall record in 2016 on his way to being named the Jacobs' Blocking Trophy Award Winner, given to the best lineman in the South Atlantic Conference. In addition, Hillin was also named to the First Team All-SAC, D2CCA All Super-Region II First Team, and the D2Football.com 2016 All-America Second Team.

Lumley turned in one of the best performances in recent memory for the Lions men's golf team, earning the South Atlantic Conference Golfer-of-the-Year award, the first time Mars Hill has ever claimed the prestigious title. Lumley is also a semi-finalist for the Jack Nicklaus DII National Player-of-the-Year award and will compete in the DII Southeast Regionals as an individual.

Kathryn Boland went undefeated in individual events during the 2016-17 season and was named to the Appalachian Swim Conference All-Conference team for her efforts. She was also tabbed as the ASC Female Swimmer-of-the-Week on three separate occasions and helped guide her team to a strong fifth place finish at the conference championships, a meet in which she went 3-for-3 in solo events.

Stanek provided the offense the majority of the season for the Blue and Gold's softball team after batting a team-high .377 with 24 RBIs, which also was tops on the squad. Her 52 hits and 14 doubles led the team and she was second on the club with a .580 slugging percentage and fourth with 19 runs scored. She was named to the South Atlantic Conference First Team as a third baseman.

Jones has been a formidable runner for the Lions since his freshman year and culminated his career with the Individual South Atlantic Cross Country Championship this past season.  A three time All-Region selection, Jones is a four-time All-Conference honoree and took home Freshman of the Year honors during his rookie season.  He currently owns both the 10K and 8K records at Mars Hill as he posted his fastest 8K time of his career this past season with a clocking of 24:07.