YSU BANQUET Phillips, Leveto earn top awards

They were named the Vindicator's YSU Male and Female Athletes of the Year.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Baseball player Jim Phillips and diver Kalyn Leveto were presented as the 2004-05 The Vindicator YSU Male and Female Athletes of the Year during Thursday's Forum Health Scholar-Athlete Banquet.
Phillips is a senior outfielder from Oregon, Ohio. Leveto is a senior from Warren.
The banquet honored more than 130 student-athletes for recording 3.0-or-better cumulative grade-point averages.
Other awards
Also presented were various Horizon League school awards and Student-Athlete Advisory Council Leadership Awards.
Phillips is the first Penguins baseball player to be named Male Athlete of the Year. Phillips and his teammates have had a banner regular season and lead the Horizon League with a 7-1 mark. YSU has won 23 of its last 28 contests.
Phillips leads the Horizon League with a .393 batting average while ranking third with a career-high 48 hits in his 38 games played.
The only Penguin to start every game this season, Phillips has recorded 31 RBIs, 21 runs scored, 10 doubles and three home runs.
Of his 39 games played, he has been on base in 35 contests and earlier this season he had a 14-game hitting streak. Showing his versatility, he has started in left field, right field and at third base. He leads the team with 15 multiple-hit contests.
Lone senior
A team captain, Phillips is the lone active senior on the YSU roster.
As a junior, Phillips helped the Penguins win their first postseason conference championship in school history with an amazing run in the Horizon League Tournament.
YSU beat the one, two and three seeds during the tournament clinching the championship with a 10-1 victory over Cleveland State in the title game. The win sent the Penguins to the Austin Regional for games against top-ranked Texas and Texas Christian.
In regional action, Phillips was impressive, hitting .714 (5-of-7) with two home runs, five RBIs, two runs scored and two doubles.
He was named to the all-tournament team.
Excelling off the diamond as well, Phillips owns a 3.19 grade-point average as an Integrated Social Studies major.
Most consistent diver
Leveto has been a model of consistency throughout her career as a member of the Youngstown State swimming and diving program. She is the second diver in four years to be named Female Athlete of the Year.
Leveto is a four-time Horizon League individual event champion and has been named Academic all-conference three times. Twice, she was named the Horizon League Diver of the Year. She also appeared in the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships in three of her four years.
In her final campaign, Leveto won the one-meter event at the conference meet after placing fourth in the three-meter competition. During her senior year, she won an impressive 25 one or three-meter diving events at various meets.
At the Horizon League Championships in February, Leveto showed what she was made of. After a disappointing three-meter performance where she finished in fourth -- her lowest finish since her first year -- she rebounded two days later to win the one-meter event by more than 25 points and set a Horizon League record in the process with a score of 284.00.
Excelling off the diving board as well, Leveto owns a 3.30 grade-point average as a Business Finance major.