Joey Harvey is a junior majoring in communication. He can be contacted at [email protected].The Top Dawg contest is over, and what a surprising championship pairing we had. Since the first match, in which volleyball’s Eva Kriegel defeated Jamont Gordon, I had a feeling we were in for a few surprises.
More than 1,000 people voted in the championship poll, proving that there is some passion behind the two athletes.
Bramlett, a sophomore catcher from Cordova, Tenn., ended up taking the championship, which is impressive considering that she had a few things seemingly working against her.
Bramlett said one factor she felt would work against her was being a female athlete competing against well-known male athletes from such sports as basketball and baseball.
“It was really surprising that I won, to be completely honest,” Bramlett said. “Not only being a girl, but being in softball. It really does kind of bring a different light to women’s sports, though. That was pretty cool. It was really surprising that I did win.”
The other obstacle in Bramlett’s way was her age, being a sophomore.
She went up against three seniors in a row, but downed senior basketballer Charles Rhodes, senior pitcher Justin Pigott and Kriegel in order, proving that being young was no problem.
“My age was against me, I thought,” Bramlett said. “I was going up against a lot of good athletes, being from football, baseball and basketball. It wasn’t as much my age, though, as it was who I was going up against.”
Bramlett said she thought that it was the statistically impressive season she had as a freshman for the Bulldog softball team that gave her enough fan support for the victory. She also said the awards she won didn’t hurt, either.
Bramlett, who thought Pigott was the favorite for the tournament, said she doesn’t plan on her on-the-diamond success ending with last season.
“I don’t plan on sophomore slumping,” Bramlett said. “I want to have a better year this year than I did last year. The words ‘sophomore slump’ aren’t really in my mind right now. I am just going to do better than what I did last year.