PEORIA, Ill. – For the second year in a row, a Bradley Soccer defender has claimed Bradley University's most prestigious athletic department award.  Tapiwa Machingauta (Marondera, Zimbabwe/Prince Edward School) was announced the winner of the 63rd Charles Orsborn Award during the annual Senior Send-Off and Athletic Awards Banquet, presented by OfficeMax, Monday night at Renaissance Coliseum.

In other awards presented Monday night, women's golfer Lauren Niemiera (Orland Park, Ill./Marist H.S.) earned the Carl Grose Service Award, runner Chelsea Griffin (Petersburg, Ill./PORTA H.S.) the Megan C. Fong Inspiration Award, women's basketball player Brooke Bisping (Morton, Ill./Morton H.S.) and runner Jon Richards (Streator, Ill./Streator H.S.) the female and male recipients of the Coach Joe Stowell Award and pioneering women's track and field competitor Dr. Carol Coram '72 the Orville Nothdurft Lifetime Achievement Award.

As has become custom, Monday's awards ceremony also included the introduction of the candidates for the Male and Female B-Club Most Outstanding Athlete Awards, which will be determined after the conclusion of the 2012-13 athletic year later this spring.

2013 Bradley Athletics Award Winners

The Charles Orsborn Award is the highest honor Bradley University bestows upon a graduating senior student-athlete and recognizes the ability of the winner to combine athletic and academic success with community service.  Machingauta was selected the winner of the 2013 Charles Orsborn Award from a trio of finalists that also included men's tennis player Juan Diego Cuadrado (Almeria, Spain/I.E.S. Alboran School) and baseball player Mike Tauchman (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd H.S.).

Raised in the sub-Saharan African countries of Zimbabwe and Malawi, Machingauta followed a non-traditional path to Bradley University, where he was a 4-year starter in the back line for the Bradley Soccer team, helping the Braves to the 2010 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship and consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2011 for the first time in program history. 

A starter in all 68 games he played in his Bradley career, Machingauta was a second-team NSCAA All-Midwest Region and first-team All-MVC performer during his senior season in 2012.  A member of the MVC All-Freshmen Team in 2009, Machingauta battled through leg injuries during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, but came back to play a team-high 1,845 field minutes in 2012.

Though he speaks English as a third language (native languages of Shona and Chichewa), Machingauta will enter final exams with a 3.03 cumulative grade point average while double-majoring in accounting and business management and administration and earning a spot on the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll three times.

Among his community service activities, Machingauta has volunteered for the Loaves and Fish program at First Methodist Church in downtown Peoria, while also speaking to grade school students at St. Mark's School and Whittier Primary School about his homeland and the importance of education.  He also is a member of Emergination Africa, an organization that connects high school students in Sub-Saharan Africa with college students and professionals in the United States through an e-mentoring program.

Coram becomes the first female recipient of the 13th annual Orville Nothdurft Lifetime Achievement Award, a fitting tribute for the first female student-athlete in Bradley Athletics history.  Before Bradley officially began sponsoring female intercollegiate athletic teams, Coram trained with the Bradley men's track and field team, competing in meets as an unattached runner.

The 1972 Bradley University graduate has gone on to a distinguished career as a track and field official, as well as an educator.  For the past 23 years, Coram has worked as a principal in public and private schools in New York, New Jersey and Washington and was recognized as the Seattle area's Outstanding Principal in 2005.  She also has served as a USA Track & Field official for 35 years and an IAAF international technical official for 14 years.  Among the numerous national, international and NCAA track and field meets she has worked, Coram officiated the long and triple jumps at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Coram has continued her competitive career as a triathlete since 2000 and has qualified for the 2013 USA Triathalon national championships in August.

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