Berry, Michaelis earn student-athlete awards

One is a softball player, the other a distance runner.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Junior Amanda Berry and senior Kurt Michaelis were honored Thursday night as Youngstown State's Vindicator male and female student-athletes of the year at the 16th annual Academic Awards banquet held at the Kilcawley Center.
Berry, from Lorain, is the first junior female and first softball player to ever receive the award.
Michaelis, from Toledo, was an NCAA All-American in the mile indoor. He was a senior in indoor track and is a junior in cross country and outdoor track this year.
Berry has been a key component in the best softball season in school history.
Entering this weekend's Horizon League series at Illinois-Chicago, YSU is 33-13-1 overall and in first place in the league standings with a 12-3-1 record.
All-American
Michaelis, a team captain for the track and cross country teams this past year, finished as an All-American at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
He was also named the Horizon League Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year, won the mile championship at the Horizon League Indoor Track and Field Championships while leading YSU to its first league title in school history and has set school records in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (outdoor), mile run (indoor) and 1,000-meter run (indoor).
Competing this past year as a senior in indoor track and a junior in cross country and outdoor track, his fourth school record is in the outdoor 1,500 meters.
At the NCAA indoor championships on March 15, Michaelis placed ninth overall in the mile with a time of 4 minutes, 07.79 seconds, but by being the seventh-place American finisher, earned All-America status.