Blue White Illustrated

In an athletic year filled with individual superlatives, these were the best of the best A Penn State middle distance standout was named Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year. Four Penn State wrestlers won national championships, and one member of that quartet set a school record for most consecutive victories. A Penn State ice hockey player graduated as the program's all-time leading goal scorer, and a Penn State basketball player finished second in the Big Ten in scoring. None of those people received BWI's Male Athlete of the Year honors. It was that kind of year for Penn State sports. PSU was blessed with an abundance of standout individual performances during the 2017-18 athletic year, and not just on the men's side. The Nittany Lion women's volleyball team also claimed Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors, only the third time in league history that the same team won both. And the Penn State women also made school history at the NCAA swimming and outdoor track meets. Those performances made it exceedingly difficult to select our annual athlete-of-the-year honors. But not impossible. Here are the honorees: M A L E AT H L E T E O F T H E Y E A R SAQUON BARKLEY F O OT B A L L Barkley's statistical portfolio speaks for itself. Despite forgo- ing his final season, he wrapped up his career as Penn State's all-time leader in all-purpose yards with 5,538, including 2,329 yards during a spectacular senior season that helped him to be- come the highest-drafted Nittany Lion in nearly two decades. And if the numbers alone don't make the case for Barkley's selection ahead of the other great athletes listed below, just cue up a video of his many breathtaking moments from last season: the sideline pivot at Iowa, the one-handed catch-and-juke against Indiana, the opening kick-return touchdown against Ohio State, the 92-yard TD burst against Washington. Penn STARS SHINE AT PENN STATE IN 2017-18 THE YEA R IN REVIEW State has had its share of great running backs, and several of them shared Barkley's ability to turn any play into something indelible. But did any of them do it as frequently as Barkley did? Then, too, there's his enduring impact on the program to con- sider. When five-star tailback recruit Devyn Ford committed to Penn State in May, one of his reasons for choosing the Lions was that he liked what Barkley had done in their offensive system. He certainly wasn't the only one. HONORABLE MENTION Tony Carr basketball | Finished second in the Big Ten in scoring at 19.6 points per game before leaving early to enter the NBA Draft... Isaiah Harris track and field | Won the 800-meter outdoor titles at both the Big Ten and NCAA championships... Bo Nickal wrestling | Went 31-0 in the 184- pound class, and the last of those victories – a pin of Ohio State's Myles Martin – clinched Penn State's team title at NCAAs... Zain Retherford wrestling | Claimed his third consec- utive national championship at 149 pounds, defeating Lock Haven's Ronnie Perry in the final for his school-record 94th victory in a row... Andrew Sturtz ice hockey | Totaled a team-high 40 points and became Penn State's all-time leading goal scorer with 54 in three seasons. F E M A L E AT H L E T E O F T H E Y E A R HALEIGH WASHINGTON V O L L E Y B A L L During her four years at Penn State – and especially during her final year – Washington was the personification of all the student-athlete ideals that colleges like to hail as the reason they're in the sports business in the first place. Was there an academic/athletic award that she didn't win? The owner of a 3.79 GPA and a degree in philosophy, she finished as a three- time Academic All-American, was Penn State's recipient of the Big Ten Medal of Honor, was the female winner of the univer- sity's Ernest B. McCoy Award and was the Senior CLASS Award winner for Division I women's volleyball. As for primarily athletic honors, she won a bunch of those, too. In recognition of her nation-leading .492 hitting percent- age – second-highest in the program's history and third-best in the NCAA since 25-point sets were adopted in 2008 – Wash- ington was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Av- eraging just over three kills per set, she claimed first-team AVCA All-America honors for the third time in her college ca- reer and All-Big Ten honors for the fourth time. That career ended with a heartbreaking loss to Nebraska in the NCAA tournament semifinals, as the Cornhuskers staved off match point and rallied to win the last two sets. But Wash- ington is still playing volleyball. She recently completed her first season with Olimpia Teodora Ravenna, a professional team that competes in the A2 Italian Women's Volleyball Champi- onship League. HONORABLE MENTION Maddie Holmberg track and field | Set a school record in the heptathlon en route to a second-place finish at the Big Ten outdoor championships, and followed it up by finishing third at nationals, Penn State's best-ever showing in

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