For the first time, a Power Five conference has named an All-Conference team for cheer and dance. The Big Ten made history at the very end of March by becoming the first major conference to come up with a process to nominate and highlight cheerleaders and dance members.
And if you ever run across a trivia question on this date in history, Ohio State’s Julia Aepli was named the inaugural Female Athlete of the Year representing the co-ed cheer teams in the conference.
But that wasn’t all. Head coaches from each school nominated team members for the following selections:
- Academic All-Big Ten
- Community Service All-Big Ten
- First team All-Big Ten
- Second team All-Big Ten
For the all-conference first and second teams, nominated student-athletes created and shared highlight videos showcasing gameday skills and technical skills in the areas of tumbling, partner stunting, basket tosses, and pyramids. Coaches then ranked the videos for males and females. After tallying all the votes, the first and second teams were selected. Coaches were not allowed to vote on their own members.
The second through fifth top-ranked males and females from the first team were named has honorable mention for athlete of the year with the student-athlete receiving the most votes being named athlete of the year.
As a result of all of that, Ohio State is able to recognize the following award as recognition.
- Alex Markley, sophomore from Doylestown, Ohio. Alex was named to Community Service All-Big Ten team and second-team All-Big Ten
- Allissa Thornton, junior from Powell, Ohio. Allissa was named first team All-Big Ten
- Keyli Smith, junior from Johnstown, Pa. Keyli was named first team All-Big Ten and honorable mention Athlete of the Year (female)
- Braden DeLullo, junior from Erie, Pa. Braden was named first team All-Big Ten and honorable mention Athlete of the Year (male)
- Julia Aepli, junior from Dublin, Ohio. Julia was named to Academic All-Big Ten team, first team All-Big Ten and the Big Ten Athlete of the Year for the co-ed teams (female).
Congrats to all of the nominees and award winners. Hopefully, this blazes a path that we’ll see other Power Five conferences adopt for a sport that’s often underappreciated for the amount of hard work and time that’s dedicated to putting a high-quality product together.
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