University of Evansville cross country coach Don Walters announced his post-season award winners this past weekend at the cross country program’s annual end-of-the-year banquet in the Carson Center.

Junior Greg Pulscher (Colorado Springs, Colo./Liberty) and senior Franny Enzler (Evansville, Ind./Memorial) earned the squad’s Most Valuable Runner awards on the men’s and women’s sides, while Most Improved honors went to junior Brian Joyce (Evansville, Ind./Central) and senior Megan Bowlds (Lexington, Ky./Paul Dunbar).  Sophomore Brian Denny (Cincinnati, Ohio/Colerain) and junior Courtney Heller (Montgomery, Ind./Barr-Reeve) earned the program’s “110 Percent” awards, while Daniel Caruana (Crown Point, Ind./Merrillville) and Lauren Schaftlein (Milltown, Ind./Crawford County) received UE’s Outstanding Freshman awards.

Pulscher earned the men’s Most Valuable Runner award for the second-straight year, after pacing the Purple Aces in seven of the team’s eight meets.  He posted five top 20 individual finishes on the year, including a pair of second-place finishes, and also helped the UE men to the best team finish in the program’s 15 years in the Missouri Valley Conference this fall by placing 24th individually at the Valley Championships.

Enzler, meanwhile, captured her first Most Valuable Runner award in her senior season after racing among UE’s top four the entire year.  Enzler led UE twice this season, including posting a career-best 6-K time of 24:54.00 in her final meet at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships.  She also cut over 50 seconds off of her previous-best 5-K time during the course of the season, posting three sub-20-minute 5-K races.

Joyce garnered Most Improved Runner honors on the men’s side, for not only racing in UE’s top three the entire season, but for also developing into a team leader off of the course in practice.  Joyce established new personal standards in both the 8-K and 10-K events this season, while also posting a pair of top 10 individual finishes.  Bowlds, meanwhile, captured the Most Improved award on the women’s side after bettering her career-best times in the 4-, 5-, and 6-K events in her senior season.  She was a consistent top five finisher for UE this season, after racing seventh for Evansville last year as a junior.

Denny and Heller were honored with the team’s “110 Percent” awards for their extra efforts in meets and practices this year.  Denny’s hard work resulted in racing third for UE at the MVC Championship meet and second in the NCAA Regional Championships.  Heller’s extra effort, meanwhile, resulted in a pair of personal-best times in the 4-K and 5-K events, while racing in UE’s top three for much of the season.

Caruana earned UE’s Outstanding Male Freshman Award after racing as the Purple Aces’ top newcomer in all six meets in which he competed.  Schaftlein, meanwhile, earned the Outstanding Female Freshman Award after posting the squad’s best 5-K time of the season at the annual UE Invitational (19:09.45), and racing among UE’s lead pack in all eight meets.

UE will return 17 runners on the men’s side and 12 runners on the women’s side next season.