SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Swimmer Christie Savard
(Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) and football and track & field
athlete Bobby Eppleman (Chester Springs, Pa./West Chester
East) were named the respective recipients of
Susquehanna’s Connie N. Harnum and Blair M. Heaton Awards,
presented on Friday, May 13, at the on-campus Senior Awards
Reception.
The Harnum Award is named for SU Sports Hall of Fame coach Connie
Harnum, whose tenure included 27 seasons as the head field hockey
coach, as well as head coach of the women’s tennis team. The
award is given to the senior female student-athlete who best
represents the ideals of intercollegiate athletics.
The Heaton Award is given to the Susquehanna male student-athlete
who best exemplifies a devotion to scholarship and athletics, along
with the self-discipline and courage that was characteristic of the
highly-respected Susquehanna coach and math professor for whom the
award is named.
Savard, an Elementary and Early Childhood
Education major who boasts a 3.75 grade-point average (GPA),
certainly made her mark on the Susquehanna record books over her
prolific career. One year ago, she became SU’s first-ever
NCAA participant and is a two-time NCAA qualifier. Savard holds
program records in four individual and five relay events.
As a senior, she received the team’s “Heart of a
Champion” award and was named team MVP as a sophomore and a
junior. Also during her junior year, she Savard was named the
Landmark Conference Female Swimmer of the Year and was nominated
for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
In 2010-11, she served as team captain and earned All-Academic
Division III honors for the second consecutive year. In addition,
she is a seven-time member of the Dean’s List, a member of
Alpha Delta Pi and a member Kappa Delta Pi Educational Honor
Society. Savard spent this past spring semester completing her
student-teaching requirements.
A two-sport athlete, Eppleman has also left his
mark on various record books and program records both during his
four-year career on the gridiron and as a multi-event performer for
the track and field team. For four years, Eppleman was the football
squad’s starting kicker and punter and was a four-time
all-conference selection (three times in the Liberty League, once
in the Centennial Conference). He holds the school record for the
longest punt (63 yards) and longest field goal (44 yards).
In 2009, he was named the Liberty League Special Teams Player of
the Year and in 2010, was named a National Football Foundation and
Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete. Also in 2010, he picked up the
Centennial Conference Sportsmanship Award.
Eppleman, a Studio Art major with a 3.35 GPA, leaves Susquehanna
as a four-time Neal Potter Special Teams Player of the Year, a
three-time D3football.com Preseason All-America punter and a
three-time D3proday.com All-America selection.
Eppleman was equally prolific during his track and field career.
Often competing in upwards of five events per championship meet for
the Crusaders, he was named the Landmark Field Athlete of the Year
in 2010 as a junior and currently stands fourth all-time in both
pole-vault (indoor) and pentathlon, fifth in pole vault (outdoor)
and 10th in the long jump (indoor). As a freshman,
Eppleman was named both the Landmark Indoor and Outdoor Male Rookie
of the Year.
