The Guardian sports team of Justin Boggs, Lee Barker III and Alan Hieber have awarded Wright State’s top athletes and coaches with its annual year end awards.
Male Athlete of the Year and MVP: Eric Lynch (Men’s soccer)
Female Athlete of the Year: Tay’ler Mingo (Women’s basketball)
Newcomer of the Year: Mitch Roman (Baseball)
Coach of the Year: Bryan Davis (Men’s soccer)
Most Improved Athlete of the Year: Richelle van der Keijl (Women’s basketball)
Game of the Year: WSU men’s soccer versus Kentucky
Male Athlete of the Year and MVP: Eric Lynch (Men’s soccer)
Wright State men’s soccer midfielder Eric Lynch, a native of nearby Bellbrook, has been a huge part of WSU’s soccer renaissance. Lynch led the entire nation in assists, helping his teammates to the program’s best record in over a decade.
While Lynch liked to distribute the ball, he also had the ability to score in 2014. Lynch was tied for the team lead in goals with seven. Lynch was second in the Horizon League in goals and first in points.
Lynch was also second in the Horizon League in shots with 58.
On Nov. 10, Lynch was named the conference’s Player of the Year. Later that evening, he scored a dramatic 74th minute goal leading WSU over UW-Milwaukee to advance to the Horizon League semifinals.
“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Lynch said. “To come in as Horizon League Player of the Year, I am humbled, but then to score the game-winning goal for our team to keep pushing us forward is great."
Lynch was among three Raiders named to the Horizon League’s first team. Fellow teammates Peguy Ngatcha and Emeka Ononye were also honored. Also, Austin Polster was named to the league’s all rookie team.
“The funny thing is, for these guys, it is not about one guy,” WSU head coach Bryan Davis said. “Eric is a special talent but this team is specially talented with special people. Eric’s function, he does extremely well with scoring goals and gets assists.”
One of Lynch’s best games came during the regular season on homecoming night against Milwaukee on Oct. 4 in front of a large crowd of 1,183. Lynch assisted Ononye and Jake Stovall before Lynch scored a goal in the 38th minute.
Honorable mention, Male Athlete of the Year: Lauri Makikalli (Men’s tennis) and Nick Scott (Golf)
Honorable mention, MVP: Tay’ler Mingo (Women’s basketball)
Female Athlete of the Year: Tay’ler Mingo (Women’s basketball)
Senior guard Tay’ler Mingo from Akron, Ohio won the Horizon League Player of the year last season and led the conference in points, assists and steals per game.
She ranked sixth in the NCAA with an average of 22.8 points per game and ranked 12th in the NCAA with 3.15 steals per game. Her point per game average ranked third in WSU history. Due to her high level of play, she set WSU single season records for assists (196), senior scoring (774), free throws made (240) and attempted in a season (320) and game (31).
“A lot of the credit goes to my teammates for getting me open and being in the right spot,” said Mingo. “I’m really grateful for the recognition but without my teammates I probably wouldn’t get that recognition. They make me better.”
With 774 points, she ranked second in the WSU record books for points in a single season; 10 behind the top rank. She scored over 20 points in 23 games on the season and scored over 30 points in six games. She had five double-digit assist games and recorded five double-doubles. On Dec. 5 she recorded a career-high with 34 points at Butler.
In the first round of the Horizon League Tournament, she recorded a career high and WSU single-game record in assists with 12 against Oakland. In the tournament, she averaged 25.7 points and 9.3 assists per game with two double-doubles. After two seasons at WSU she became the 20th member of the WSU 1,000 point club with 1,303 points in 69 career games.
“She put our program on the map,” said head coach of WSU’s women’s basketball team Mike Bradbury. “She kept us in it in tough times and she gave us a chance to win. We needed her to be the best player and that’s what she does.”
Honorable mention: Halle Pyle (women’s soccer) Linsey Verstrepen (women’s tennis)
Newcomer of the Year: Mitch Roman (Baseball)
When the college baseball season commenced it was thought that Sinclair transfer Mitch Roman would fill a defensive void for the Raiders. His fourth overall .321 team batting average and .936 fielding percentages indicate his talent extends from the infield to the batters’ box.
In one of Wright State’s more impressive victories this season Roman was responsible for a team leading 3 RBI in a 12-6 victory over national power Miami. In Roman’s eyes highly talented teams like Miami are not intimidating.
“In that third game on that Sunday in Miami we came back and showed them what this program really is,” Roman said. “There was definitely a chip on our shoulder to go out there to prove we are Wright State and they’re nothing to us.”
Roman quickly climbed to the one and two spots reserved for talented hitters after starting the season in the nine spot. His batting average makes him one of the Horizon League batting leaders at 16th overall in that category. His batting prowess is further indicated by his second overall ranking in the league in hits with 59.
Two of Roman’s more impressive performances came in matchups against Milwaukie and Oakland, which were both four hit efforts. The threat Roman poses offensively is attributed to his speed out of the box, according to Wright State head baseball coach Greg Lovelady.
““He’s hitting choppers and putting pressure on the defense because he gets out of the box so well. He might hit a ground ball to short, but it puts pressure on the shortstop to hurry,” Lovelady said.
With two more years of eligibility left Roman should have time to mold into a player with pro potential.
“He’s still learning how to hit at this level and how to hit consistently. He’s going to continue to grow offensively and have a good chance to be a professional player one day,” Lovelady said.
Honorable mention: Nick Scott (Golf), Michael Karena (Men’s basketball), Karoline Haller (Women’s tennis)
Coach of the Year: Bryan Davis (Men’s soccer)
While many will contend that Wright State is and will always will be a basketball school, WSU men’s soccer head coach Bryan Davis is making a good case that the university is becoming a soccer school.
Davis’ Raiders had their best record in over a decade and played an exciting brand of soccer that drew record crowds. For WSU’s season opener in August, Wright State attracted an Alumni Field record crowd of 1,342 to watch the Raiders defeat Kentucky 1-0.
The Raiders finished the season 12-7-2.
WSU also had solid marquee wins over UIC and Detroit. The Raiders also
Davis’ squad lost in the Horizon League title game 2-1 at Oakland after placing third in the league’s regular season. Davis recruited star players like Eric Lynch and Peguy Ngatcha who joined senior defender Emeka Ononye on the All Horizon League First Team. Lynch led the nation in assists, while Lynch and Ngatcha were tied for second in the conference for goals with seven apiece.
Led by Lynch, Davis employed an up-tempo brand of soccer that led to a prolific scoring attack. WSU led the league with 38 goals.
“Our future is bright at Wright State,” Davis said. “Our seniors in their four years completely changed the program.”
This year was just Davis’ second winning season in his sixth year with the school. In 2011, WSU also reached the Horizon League title game under Davis. WSU looks poised to stay at the top of the league with Lynch and Ngatcha returning along with goalkeeper Tyler Blackmer.
Honorable Mention: Greg Lovelady (baseball), Mike Bradbury (women’s basketball)
Most Improved Athlete of the Year: Richelle van der Keijl (Women’s basketball)
After being redshirted for the 2013-14 season, Richelle van der Keijl made her college debut this year for the Raiders. In the first 17 games of the season, the six-foot-five center from The Netherlands averaged 7.2 minutes and 3.3 points per game.
Her effectiveness while playing in zone defense was embraced by the coaching staff and became a big part of their game plan for the season. In the final 14 games, she averaged 10.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game on 18.3 minutes. With zero starts last season, she finished with an overall average of 6.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game during conference play.
“She’s got a really good attitude,” said head coach of the women’s basketball team Mike Bradbury. “She continues to improve and has continued to work and get better.”
She recorded a career high with 19 points on Jan. 24 against Cleveland State on 9 of 12 shooting. On Feb. 21, she recorded her first career double-double against Oakland with 18 points, five blocks and a career-high 12 rebounds.
“It was hard in the beginning,” said van der Keijl. “Hard work and practicing against good players helps a lot.”
Van der Keijl’s most impressive stat line was her .607 field goal percentage (82/135), ranked first in WSU single season history. Her average would have ranked fourth in the NCAA if she had met the minimum requirement for field goal attempts. She recorded a perfect field goal percentage in five games on the season including 14 consecutive field goals spread between the span of five straight games (March 4 – March 15).
She ranked fifth in the Horizon League with 37 blocks and tied for 11th with 68 offensive rebounds. In conference play, she ranked first with a .595 field goal percentage, third with 1.5 blocks per game and seventh with 2.5 offensive rebounds per game.
Honorable mention: Courtney Boyd (women’s basketball), Luke Mamer (baseball), Michael Karena (men’s basketball)
