Wednesday, June 19, 2019
PORTLAND, Ore. – Three athletes from Concordia and two from Western Oregon are among the nominees for the top award for small college athletes from Oregon Sports Awards.
Cavaliers’ senior track athlete Giovanni Brown and Western Oregon senior baseball player Jared McDonald are among the male finalists for the Ad Rutschman Award. Concordia senior track athlete Chelsea Bone and soccer player Gabrielle Ewing, along with Western Oregon senior track athlete Olivia Woods, are among the finalists for the female version of the award.
Named for the longtime hall of fame football coach at Linfield College, the Ad Rutschman Award is presented annually to the top male and female non-Division I athlete from an Oregon college. The award winners will be announced in May. Unlike in past years, there will be no awards show in 2019.
In 2018, Western Oregon’s David Ribich became the first GNAC athlete to receive the Ad Rutschman Award.
Brown also placed second at the GNAC Outdoor Championships in the 110-meter hurdles and third in the triple jump. Indoors, Brown placed third in both the heptathlon (4,987) and the 60-meter hurdles. A Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District selection, Brown competed at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the decathlon, placing 11th with a score of 6,684 points.
McDonald was a First Team All-GNAC and consensus All-West Region selection and also earned Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District selection. Leading all qualified WOU hitters with a .362 batting average, McDonald finished the season ranked fourth in the GNAC with a .611 slugging percentage and 46 runs scored, was fifth with nine home runs and sixth with 54 hits. McDonald was selected by Oakland in the 19th round of the 2019 MLB Draft and is currently assigned to the Athletics’ Arizona Rookie League team.
Bone took third in the GNAC indoors in the pentathlon (3,607 points) and outdoors in the heptathlon (4,982 points). She closed the indoor season at the Division II Indoor Championships, placing 11th in the pentathlon with a season-best score of 3,624 points that ranks No. 6 on the GNAC All-Time List. Bone’s season-best of 5,009 points in the outdoor heptathlon is No. 9 on the GNAC All-Time List. Like Brown, Bone was a Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and was Concordia’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Ewing led the Concordia women’s soccer team to the GNAC championship and the Cavaliers’ first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II Championship. A First Team All-GNAC and All-West Region selection, Ewing was named a Third Team All-American by the United Soccer Coaches, marking just the second such selection ever for the program. Ewing led Concordia with eight goals and was tied for first with 22 points.
Woods was the runner-up in the 800 meters at the GNAC Indoor Championships in 2:10.13 and went on to place fifth at the Division II Indoor Championships in 2:08.44. Woods placed fifth in the event at the GNAC Outdoor Championships in 2:12.62 and went on to place 12th at the Division II Outdoor Championships in 2:14.36. She is also a Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District selection.