AUBURN, Ala. – Golfer Megan Schofill and baseball's Sonny DiChiara won Student-Athlete of the Year honors at Auburn's 13th annual AUSPY Awards Monday at Neville Arena.
Dressed for a night on the town, student-athletes took pictures with teammates and conducted orange-carpet interviews with AUSPYs correspondent Carlee McCondichie, whose home run a day earlier helped Auburn win a softball series at Alabama.
Nominees were selected by a vote from student-athletes and Auburn Athletics staff for the period beginning in May of 2022 through mid-April 2023.
Schofill recorded four top-five finishes in the 2022 season including a victory in the Mason Rudolph Championship.
"To be nominated with all the other really great female student-athletes is an incredible honor," said Schofill, who was the runner-up at the 2022 and 2023 SEC championships and owns the lowest scoring average in Auburn history. "I have a great support staff around me, a great group of girls. My teammates really encourage me, they push me to be better, and my coaches at Auburn and at home have helped me along my way."
In his lone season on the Plains, DiChiara led the Tigers to the 2022 College World Series and helped Auburn earn the program's first victory in Omaha in 25 years. A consensus All-American, DiChiara was the third Auburn player to be named SEC Player of the Year.
Gallery: (4-24-2023) 2023 AUSPYS
Equestrian won women's Team of the Year honors for claiming its fifth consecutive SEC championship this spring and finishing as national runner-up.
Baseball earned men's Team of the Year recognition after advancing to the College World Series in 2022 for the second time in three postseasons after hosting and sweeping an NCAA Regional and defeating Oregon State in the Corvallis Super Regional.
Volleyball's Akasha Anderson and swimming & diving's Kalle Makinen won Newcomer of the Year awards. Gymnast Adeline Sabados and men's basketball's Zep Jasper were honored for sportsmanship.
Men's basketball's Chris Moore and soccer's LJ Knox each received Inspiration awards.
Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors went to Sara Pacer from track & field and football's Jake Levant.
Men's basketball's Babatunde Akingbola took home the SASS Academic Achievement Award.
Football's Malcolm Johnson Jr. and gymnast Morgan Leigh Oldham received the Virgil Starks Passion Award for displaying exceptional spirit and character.
Men's tennis, women's swimming & diving and soccer posted the highest GPAs.
Athletics director John Cohen renamed the Spirit of Auburn award in honor of former AD David Housel, presenting it to volleyball's Jackie Barrett and diver Conner Pruitt.
During the AUSPYs, student-athletes selected women's track and field as the War Eagle Moment for sweeping all of the long throws at the 2022 SEC outdoor championships and voted track & field's Jeremy Zammit and equestrian's Madison Parduhn as the Best Dressed.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer
