Men's Soccer | May 31, 2018
CLEVELAND – Western Michigan's Maria Jaramillo and Brand Bye were honored with the 2018 Medal of Excellence by the Mid-American Conference at the Honors Dinner Ceremony on Wednesday night.
To be honored with the Medal of Excellence Award, student-athletes had to participate on the varsity level in a conference sponsored sport and shown evidence of academic success with a minimum 3.50 accumulative grade-point average, exhibited athletics excellence, leadership and service. Selection of the recipients was made by each MAC institution.
Jaramillo, who sports a 3.98 GPA in biomedical sciences, captained the 2017 women's soccer team to a 10-8-1 record, securing 10 or more wins every season of her career. The Windsor, Ontario, native earned Academic All-MAC honors and was named CoSIDA Second Team All-District. She is the only student-athlete at Western Michigan to be a part of the Lee Honors College.
Bye capped off an incredible senior season by being named the Men's Soccer Division I Scholar Player of the Year. The Portage, Mich., native was also named a United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-American, in addition to being named Academic All-MAC, a MAC Distinguished Scholar and a CoSIDA Academic All-American. The Hermann Trophy semifinalist was also named the MAC Player of the Year after helping lead the Broncos to a MAC title in the regular season and an appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16. Bye was unable to attend due to his commitment with the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer.
Men's basketball senior Bryce Moore accepted the Men's MAC GPA award on behalf of WMU's men's sports, while women's tennis junior Denise Azcui accepted the MAC Institutional GPA award on behalf of Western Michigan.
