By Thien Huynh
Two of Ryerson’s top athletes capped off great careers with hardware at the university’s 50th annual athletic banquet last Wednesday.
There were no surprises when it came time to hand out the outstanding athlete awards. Marie Claire Ross took the H.H. Kerr trophy for outstanding female athlete for the second straight year. Ross was also named MVP of the women’s swim team after she won a bronze medal in the OUA championships. Asked if she ever gets bored of winning awards Ross responded jokingly, “It’s always exciting and it’s fun to count how many I’ve gotten.” This is Ross’ final year at Ryerson.
Along with saying goodbye to Ross, the banquet also served as a farewell party for Carl HArper. The men’s basketball captain capped his university playing career by winning the outstanding male athlete award. The man of many nicknames received his award as the crowd roared, “Hot chocolate! Hot chocolate!” He earned this nickname after posing half naked for a previous Eyeopener story. As for his future plans, Harper plans to finish off his public administration degree and then perhaps head to Europe.
“Some people saw me play well in the all-star game and asked me to join a men’s league in Ireland,” said Harper.
Of course, no Ryerson athletics banquet would be complete without basketball coach Terry Haggerty’s annual rant against the Ryerson media. Haggerty blasted Ryerson’s two newspapers saying, “The media says we can’t win games but our guys proved that we can. I’m proud of our guys!”
Other major award winners were Anthony Miele of the hockey team and Karen Ure of the women’s basketball team for greatest contributions by a male and female athlete. Miele was also named MVP of his team.
As for the newcomers, hoopster Sasha Ivankovic won male rookie aware. The big forward will be looked upon to take over for Harper next year. Sounantha Chanthapanya of the women’s volleyball team was the women’s winner.
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