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Davis, Green named top student-athletes
Western Carolina track and field junior Asia Davis (Charlotte) and sophomore third baseman Jonathan Greene (Boone) were today named the Catamount Student-Athletes of the Month for May for their respective performances last month. Davis earned her way to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, competing late Thursday evening on the West Coast, while Greene led the Catamounts in most offensive categories last month, including a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week award to conclude the regular season.
Davis is the third Catamount track and field athlete to earn the school’s monthly honor, joining April’s winner, Tangelia Johnson, and Raquel Ramseur who shared the honor with Mendy McKenzie (softball) in February. Other selections this season included women’s soccer selections Emily Pierce (September) and Alesha Row (November); women’s golfer Ashley Hovda (October); women’s basketball’s Lauren Powell (December) and Monique Dawson (January); and softball’s Allyson McCubbins in March. On the men’s side, Greene joins baseball counterpart, Blake Murphy, who won the award back in March. Additional honorees this season included football’s Mitchell Dukes (October) and Rico Reese (November); basketball’s Corey Muirhead (December) and David Berghoefer (January); track’s Zeb Johnson (February); and the only two-time selection, men’s golfer Matt Cook, who earned the honor in September and April.
After winning the Southern Conference 400-meter hurdles at the outdoor championship at the end of April, Davis opened May by posting a 16th-place finish in the highly competitive Georgia Tech Invitational, which serves as a tune-up and last chance qualifier for the NCAA Regional meets. Two weeks later, at the NCAA East Regional, Davis won her heat in the same event, negotiating the hurdles in a school-record 58.05 – the third quickest time of the day – breaking her own record by nearly seven-tenths of a second. In the finals, Davis again eclipsed the 60-second barrier, marking the fifth time this season, improving upon her 12th-place, pre-regional ranking to finish seventh. Additionally at the East Regional, Davis teamed with sophomores Ramseur and Johnson, and freshman Aneesha Lane to set a school record in the women’s 4x400-meter relay. The foursome won their section with a time of 3:39.36 to move from 17th in the region to finish 10th.
As the month closed, Davis learned that her seasonal and regional performances had earned her an at-large bid to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, ongoing this week in Sacramento, Calif.
Greene led Western with a .476 batting average (30-for-63) with 12 of those hits going for extra bases, including a team-best seven home runs. He added 14 runs scored in 15 games with a team-best 20 RBI. In addition, Greene stole a team-best three bases and only made one error in 46 chances at third. It was his play, especially in the month of May, which led the league coaches to name him first team All-Southern Conference. Also during the month, he was named was named Southern Conference Player of the Week and was named one of Collegiate Baseball / Louisville Slugger’s” National Players of the Week. Greene, who batted .722 with five home runs in earning the honor, hit at least one home run in each of his four games over the span, as well as having at least three hits in each contest.
Greene had at least one hit in 14 of his 15 games played in the month, ending the season with a career-best, 13-game hit streak to see his season batting average rise from .290 to .338. Also, over his final 10 games, he had at least two hits in nine contests.
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