MSU's Ross, Dascent Take Home Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year Honors At Awards Banquet

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Morgan State University junior cheerleader Amanda Ross and senior track standout Calvin Dascent were recognized as the male and female student-athletes of the year at the 26^th Annual Athletics Awards Banquet at The Theatre in the MSU Student Center.

Ross, a native of Columbia, Md., is the captain of the 2012 MEAC Champion Cheer Bears and will continue to be a captain for the 2012-13 squad. Ms. Ross finished as the runner-up for the 2012 MEAC Cheerleader of the Year and she was an All-American in “STUNT”. She played a key role for the Cheer Bears as they became the 1st HBCU Team to make it into the NCA College Nationals All-Girl-I Division Finals. Ms. Ross helped guide the Cheer Bears to an impressive 6th place national ranking.

Dascent, a product of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, has made a name for himself at Morgan State. He established a new indoor school record in the 500 meter dash with a time of 1:02.46 seconds, erasing the old record which was set 23 years ago. He finished third in the 400 meters at the MEAC indoor championship and was named to the MEAC third team. He ranked among the NCAA top 40 athletes in the 200 meter dash during the indoor season and was undefeated in the 200 meter and 400 meter dashes in his first two indoor meets, before getting injured at the 2012 MEAC indoor championships. He qualified for the IC4A indoor championship in both the 200m and 400m and was a member of the 4X400 relay team, which finished third at the 2012 prestigious Millrose Games Invitational meet held at the New York Armory.

For the second year in a row, MSU cheerleading head coach Theresa Gibson was selected as the Coach of the Year. Under the direction of Coach Gibson, the MEAC cheerleading trophy stayed in Baltimore and on the Morgan State campus for the second consecutive year, as the Cheer Bears kicked off the MEAC basketball tournament capturing two of the three first-place championship trophies they competed for. Morgan State claimed the overall grand championship title and the all-girls division title. The accolades kept coming for the Cheer Bears, who this season became the first HBCU team to make it into the finals of the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) Collegiate Cheer championship and placed sixth in the nation at the competition in their first year of competing at the Division I All-Girl level. The Lady Bears' “Stunt” team also ranked 19th in the nation, including an eighth-place finish in the All-Division I East.

Print Friendly Version