Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/523134
hen Blue White Illustrated selects its athletes of the year, everything is taken into consideration. Did they excel at a national level, taking home championships, awards and acco- lades? Were they leaders among their peers, too, while they did it? Did they em- phasize the score on game day as much as on test day? And did they do it better than anyone else wearing blue and white for that year? For Penn State wrestler Matt Brown, it is check, check, check and check. In March, Brown won the 174-pound championship at the NCAA tournament in St. Louis, capping a collegiate athletic career that began at Iowa State, was put on hold for two years during a religious mission to Africa, and eventually came full circle, with the Utah native taking his place as the 23rd national champ in the history of the very same school that his parents, Dave and Cindy, attended more than 40 years ago. Then in May, Brown put a stamp on his career as a student-athlete when he be- | W S P E C I A L S E C T I O N THE YEAR IN REVIEW 46 >> FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Last year's winner, All-America setter Micha Hancock, did it again as a senior, lifting the Nit- tany Lion women's volleyball team to its seventh national champi- onship and claiming national Player of the Year honors along the way. 48 >> MALE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR DaeSean Hamilton turned in a record-setting performance for the Penn State football team, emerging from an injury-plagued redshirt season to become one of the top pass-catchers in the Big Ten. 49 >> FEMALE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR Coming up big throughout the regular season and again in the NCAA tournament, Ali Frantti firmly established herself as one of the rising stars in collegiate women's volleyball. 51 >> COACH OF THE YEAR Russ Rose guided his rebuilt team to another national title and along the way became the sport's win- ningest coach. 52 >> LOOKING AHEAD Blue White Illustrated's staff offers a few predictions about who and what Penn State fans will be talk- ing about in the upcoming athletic year.