WEBSTER GROVES – Running through Friday, June 18, Webster Athletics will unveil its Gorlok Award winners for the 2020-21 school year each day leading to announcing Webster Athletics Department Award winners on Saturday, June 19.
This is the third consecutive year that Webster Athletics has awarded the 10 ESPY-styled awards that were created by the Webster Athletics Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Once again, those awards were nominated and voted on my Webster's coaches and athletic department staff members.
After unveiling the winners of the best action and funniest action photo on Monday and the record breaking performance and top sixth man on Tuesday, today's two Gorlok Award winners being recognized are the Best Teammate and Breakthrough Athlete from the 2020-21 school year.
The Best Teammate of the Year goes to senior women's basketball forward
Darieana Hunter (Norman, Okla./Norman). Hunter, who was a four-year letterwinner for the Gorloks women's basketball team, missed almost the entire 2020-21 season due to a second knee injury suffered early in the first game of the season at Greenville. Despite sitting out almost the entire season, Hunter still made her presence felt as a Gorlok with her contagious smile and positive attitude and those two traits helped keep the Gorloks team focused and engaged on a daily basis.
In her four years as a Gorloks, Hunter played in 58 games and made two starts and scored a total of 283 points, pulled down 207 rebounds, dished out 25 assists, blocked 34 shots and had 39 career steals. Her 34 career blocked shots are 12th on the school's career chart, while the 0.6 career blocked shot average is fifth on the school's career chart.
"Despite her injury that caused her to miss almost the entire season but just four minutes of action, Dari was very positive and that positiveness helped our team stay focused and that helped lead us to the successes we had this past season," Webster women's basketball coach
Jordan Olufson said in his nomination form for Hunter.
Along with Hunter, the other finalists for the Best Teammate Award this year were men's basketball senior forward
Rodson Etienne (West Palm Beach, Fla./Royal Palm Beach) and softball senior utility player
Chloe Johnson (Hazelwood, Mo./STLCC).
Meanwhile, the Breakout Athlete of the Year was second-year freshman baseball pitcher
Jordan Smevoll (Dyer, Ind./Marian Catholic).
During the 2021 baseball season, Smevoll was named a First-Team ABCA/Rawlings All-Central Region selection as a starting pitcher after going 9-1 with a 2.08 ERA on the season as the Gorloks' No. 2 starter behind fifth-year senior First-Team All-American
Matt Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic). In 12 appearances and 12 starts, the lefthander tossed one complete game and in 69.1 innings of work, allowed 55 hits, 17 runs, 16 earned runs, while walking 17 and striking out 66. Opposing hitters hit .214 against Smevoll on the year. Along with earning First-Team ABCA/Rawlings All-Central Region honors, Smevoll was also named a Second-Team All-SLIAC selection and was named the MVP of the SLIAC Tournament after going 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in two starts. On the year, he pitched six or more innings in five of his 12 starts and struck out six or more batters in seven of his 12 starts.
In his nomination of Smevoll for the award, Webster head baseball coach
Bill Kurich said that Smevoll was a freshman in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season and he pitched in four innings and recorded a 10.38 ERA, but he came back this season determined to play a major role this season and he has done that.
"Jordan played a big role in the success of our baseball team this year and had a tremendous season," Kurich said.
Along with Smevoll, the other finalists for the Breakthrough Athlete of the Year were softball freshman pitcher
Reese Waggoner (Centennial, Colo./Eaglecrest), junior women's basketball guard
Hannah Cottrell (Steelville, Mo./Steelville) and junior men's soccer midfielder/forward
Aamahn Murvin (Sahuarita, Ariz./Walden Grove).
Here is the schedule for the other awards this week that will be announced:
Monday (June 14) – Best Action photo (Lexi Young and Raven Ritrovato – Competitive Cheerleading) and Funniest Action photo (
Ben Aziz – Men's Soccer)
Tuesday (June 15) – Best Record Setting Performance (Will Hocker & Men's Golf Team) and Sixth Man of the Year (
Mark Moore - Men's Soccer)
Today (June 16) – Breakthrough Athlete of the Year and Best Teammate
Thursday (June 17) – Best Play of the Year and Best Win of the Year
Friday (June 18) – Golden Gorlok Award and Most Well-Rounded Team
On Saturday (June 19), the department's five major awards – Inspiration, Scholar Athlete, Chancellor's Award and the Outstanding Male and Female Athletes of the Year will be announced, along a list of the 2020-21 senior student-athletes.
