The Ernies were handed out earlier this week at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The annual banquet to honor the school’s top athletes produced several big winners. Leading the pack were Kenny Copley and Jamie Brandon, Riddle’s male and female athletes of the year. Copley was both the Cascade Collegiate Conference champion and the NAIA national champion at heavyweight for the wrestling team, while Brandon notched 21 goals for the women’s soccer team and was an NAIA All-American.
The newcomers of the year were wrestling’s Yoshi Funakoshi and soccer’s Natalia Sepulvada. Funakoshi was a national champion, while Sepulvada was an All-American defender.
Golfer Jonathan Tso was the male freshman of the year. The Prescott grad was the individual runner-up at the GSAC tournament. Softball’s Ryan Da Costa and soccer’s Molly Newlin were the co-female freshmen of the year. Da Costa is currently batting .421 with 43 runs scored, and Newlin was the conference freshman of the year.
The male and female comeback athletes of the year were Chino Valley grad Dillon Eisner and Sophia Noriega, both of cross country.