Multi-sport duo earn SC ESPY Athletes of the Year accolades

INDIANOLA, Iowa – Spencer Moon of the Simpson men's cross country and track and field teams and Cassie Nash of the Storm women's soccer and basketball teams have been crowned the 2022-23 SC ESPY Male and Female Athletes of the Year.

Both Moon and Nash put together impressive resumes in 2022-23 with numerous conference, regional and national awards across two sports. The duo also broke multiple school records and were recognized for their academic achievements as well.

This is the second time Moon and Nash have been awarded the Athletic Department's Male and Female Athlete of the Year honor, a testament to their remarkable careers at Simpson. Moon earned the honor in 2021, while Nash was selected as Female Athlete of the Year in 2022.

Spencer Moon
In his fourth year at Simpson, Moon continued to cement himself as one of the greatest Storm distance runners of all time. He began the year with a stellar cross country season that was capped with a 10th place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships, the program's first All-American award since 1989. He ensured his spot at nationals by placing third at regionals, the same meet he became the first runner to be named all-region three times in their career since Danny Bauer in 1982-84.

Earlier in the season, Moon captured back-to-back individual titles at the Aurora Invitational and Platte River Rumble, his fifth and sixth career individual cross country victories. His victory at the Platte River Rumble was especially notable, as he took down a field largely made up of NCAA Division I and II runners, while also running a school-record 8K in 23:34.2.

Moon set the tone for his fourth track campaign early by breaking his own school record in the indoor 5000 meters in his first race of the year alongside a host of Division I runners. Just over a month later, he shattered the school's indoor mile record set by Jeff Brooks in 1986, leaving just the outdoor 10,000-meter record for him to break. He accomplished that feat in dominating fashion on April 21, breaking Danny Bauer's 1984 mark by almost 25 seconds to officially own all six distance records at Simpson.

At the two American Rivers Conference Championship meets, Moon won all four races he competed in and was voted the league's Track MVP in each to become the first individual in Simpson history to sweep the honor at both the indoor and outdoor meets. He claimed his first career indoor title in the 5000 meters and followed that performance by winning the 3000-meter run the next day. Outdoors, he won his second consecutive title in the 5000 meters a day after running to victory in the 10,000 meters. Moon qualified for nationals and earned all-region honors in all four of those events as well.

Cassie Nash
Nash did her fair share of making history too. On the soccer pitch, she put forth the program's first All-American season by scoring 24 goals and adding seven assists. Eight of her goals were game-winners for Simpson, which ended the season with a 12-6-1 overall record and 6-2 mark in A-R-C play. Nash's efforts propelled the Storm a third-place finish in league standings as well as a trip to the conference's tournament championship for the first time in 13 seasons.

After recording six goals throughout the first eight games of the season, the first team all-region performer exploded for 18 in October and November. During that span, she had six multi-goal games, including two hat tricks, and four assists to help the Storm go 8-3 in their final 11 games. The A-R-C Offensive MVP was named A-R-C Player of the Week four times throughout the season and DIII National Player of the Week once.

Nash's 24 goals tied for the sixth-highest single season total in program history, while her 55 points rank eighth all-time. She's just the fifth player to ever surpass the 20-goal threshold in a single season.

While her offensive skills were on high display in the fall, it was her defense that shined in the winter for women's basketball. The 2023 A-R-C Defensive Player of the Year once again dominated all facets of the game, leading the league and ranking top-10 in the nation in field goal percentage (58.6), steals (104) and steals per game (4.3). She also led the conference in assists (118), assists per game (4.9) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.07), while ranking third in points per game (15.3) and tied for fourth in blocks per game (1.0).

Nash was regularly on triple double watch this season, having 18 games with 10+ points, 11 games with 5+ assists, 11 games with 5+ steals and 10 games with 5+ rebounds. In the month of February alone, Nash averaged 20.1 points, 6.3 assists and 6.0 steals to help the Storm go 6-1 with their only loss being to No. 19 Loras in the conference tournament semifinals.

Among all those accomplishments, Nash became the 19th member of Simpson's 1,000-point club and broke three program records including career steals (285), season steals (104) and single game assists (14). The three-time all-conference performer was selected to the D3hoops.com Team of the Week on Feb. 14 and was honored as the league's player of the week two times in a row on Feb. 6 and Feb. 13.

2022-23 SC ESPYs
Spencer Moon - Male Athlete of the Year
Cassie Nash - Female Athlete of the Year
Women's Soccer - Team of the Year
Heath Moenck - Coach of the Year
Easton Darling - Male Newcomer of the Year
Elle Street - Female Newcomer of the Year
Andrew Gibb - Male Record-Breaking Performer of the Year
Kate Minette - Female Record-Breaking Performer of the Year