PEORIA, Ill. - Sarah McMahon (Colfax, Wis./Colfax H.S.) and Bryan Gaul (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley H.S.) maintained the women's cross country/track and soccer hold on the annual Bradley Alumni B-Club Most Outstanding Female and Male Athlete Awards, both earning their respective sport's claim to the awards for a third consecutive year.
After a week-long vote of fans, Bradley Athletics staff and local sports media, McMahon follows in the footsteps of 2010 and 2011 winner Mary Goldkamp by representing the women's cross country and track teams as the recipient of the 2012 Alumni B-Club Most Outstanding Female Athlete. With Gaul as a repeat winner of the 2011 and 2012 Alumni B-Club Most Outstanding Male Athlete, a soccer player has won at least a share of the award in 10 of the last 14 years.
Theresa Peterson is the winner of the Bradley Athletics apparel prize package for participating in the online fan vote for the Most Oustanding Athletes at BradleyBraves.com.
McMahon earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors in all three running seasons during her freshman year for the Braves. After earning all-conference honors by placing seventh at the 2011 State Farm MVC Cross Country Championships, McMahon went on to earn Junior All-America honors by finishing eighth at the 2012 USA Junior National Cross Country Championships. She added All-MVC awards at the 2012 State Farm MVC Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships by placing third in the 5,000-meters event at both meets. She also qualified for the finals in the 5,000-meters at the USA Junior National Outdoor Track and Field Championships last week at Indiana University.
McMahon becomes the first freshman to claim the Most Outstanding Athlete Award in either gender since soccer player Gavin Glinton began his 4-year claim to the male award in 1999 and she is the first-ever female freshman to win the award.
Now playing for Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy, Gaul led the Bradley Soccer team to its second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance by tying for second in The Valley with 11 goals and 26 points. A first-team All-MVC and NSCAA All-Midwest Region selection, Gaul was the national player of the week Aug. 29 when he contributed to four of Bradley's five goals in a season-opening weekend sweep at Butler and IPFW. After netting the game-winning goal in both games, he became the first player in program history to score the game-winning goal in three consecutive games by scoring the overtime "golden" goal in the home opener versus Eastern Illinois.
Gaul was selected by the Galaxy in the first round of the MLS Supplemental Draft and has earned a spot on the roster for the defending MLS Cup champion. Playing in the backline, Gaul has started in three regular-season games thus far for the Galaxy.
